Finding suitors for rescued animals the Indian way

THANE: Freedom Farm hosts a festive ‘Meet Your Match’ event to connect rescued animals with new companions, emphasizing love and responsible adoption.

THANE: The string of red and pink paper hearts festooning the blue gate gives a cheerful look to an otherwise nondescript setting. Inside the gate are more hearts, dangling from the cages of animals and glued to chairs, tables and other furniture. Colourful paper wreaths and flowers are secured to the lone bamboo pole standing at the centre of a small open ground.

Thane, India - February 16, 2025: Activities of NGO from thane (rescuing street animals) in Thane celebrated Valentine's Day with animals at Freedom Farm, Animal Shelter in Kasarwadvali . This time, songs, dances and selfies were taken with the animals. Citizens also participated in this program. ,in Thane,in Mumbai, India, on, Sunday, February -16, 2024. ( Praful Gangurde /HT Photo )

This is Freedom Farm, a shelter for rescued domestic animals. The 65 residents of this shelter, including dogs, cats, donkeys and a goat, are all dressed in their colourful Sunday best to celebrate the ‘Meet Your Match’ event, organised by the Citizens For Animal Protection (CAP) which runs the shelter.

The dominant colour for the evening is red. The hues of the setting sun and the gentle cool breeze add a romantic element to this animal ‘swayamwar’ or line-up from which one can choose a mate. Sushant Tomar, the founder of CAP, and his brigade of committed young volunteers are ensuring that their animals find a forever home.

A safe place, Freedom Farm is a shelter where animals—abandoned or victims of human violence—recover mentally and physically. It is a place where they breathe the air of freedom after harrowing physical abuse, accounts of which are too disturbing to listen to. The air is pregnant with excitement—laughter, joy and love ring out loud along with barks, meows, brays and bleats. Freedom Farm is decked up for the visiting animal lovers who will step in to find suitable companions for their pets.

The animals are groomed and their furry coats shining. Some of the volunteers are dressed in traditional wear, accentuating the festive atmosphere. When Benji, a seven-year old Beagle, walks in with his parents Sujata Iyer and Dhiren Singh, the dolled-up residents of Freedom Farm bark in unison and collectively run to the blue gate. Benji takes a moment to get his bearings and then pursues some of those he fancies. His pet father moves along with him, ensuring that Benji meets them all.

There is another flutter when Meghna Jairam walks in with her two-year-old Boxer, Duke. “I have just shifted to Thane from Pune, and Duke doesn’t have any friends. I have come here so that he can meet someone who will interest him,” she says.

In its fifth edition this year, Tomar and his team come up with novel themes each year—the focus of each being to find a forever home for the rescued animals. “We have tried to ensure that our animals get good homes,” says Tomar. “We come up with new themes every year to ignite an interest in dog lovers.”

The only-by-registration event has pet parents walking around the farm casting an eye around for suitors and dates for their pets. Some have attended to merely enjoy the experience of the shelter. The event has seen an elevation on the popularity charts as, increasingly, animal lovers prefer rescued animals as companions for their pets. “By finding a companion for their pets, the animal lovers are in a way adopting a rescued animal and giving it a forever home,” says Pranav Trivedi, a member of CAP, who helps in the operations of Freedom Farm.

The pink photo booth with its dangling red hearts emerges as a go-to spot for the visitors. Cuddling their furry dates in their arms, many of them get selfies taken. Tuntun the Terrier, dressed in a printed doggie outfit, emerges as the favourite, with multiple people cuddling her. Tuntun has a beatific expression on her face, her hazel eyes looking lovingly at them.

The first step to finding a furry date is an introduction to the furry superstars at the shelter through a Meet And Greet handshake. Every animal there has its own story, and as the young volunteers narrate them, many visitors are visibly moved. For many pet parents, it’s love at first sight. The visitors are allowed to choose a ‘date’ with whom they can spend the entire evening. The ‘spending time with your date’ is a precursor to finding the right companion for their pets from the swayamvar where suitors can be chosen from the assembled line-up.

“Since the animals at the shelter are either abandoned or have faced violence, everyone at the shelter is extra careful about screening the families who have found a match,” says Trivedi. “We study the lifestyle of the family, the temperament of their pet, the restrictions the family imposes on their pet, food habits etc before a decision is taken to fix the match with that family. Like in the human world, if there is a lack of compatibility, the animal from the shelter is not given to the family that ‘dated’ it during the Meet Your Match event. It could be love at first sight but we have to ensure that for the pets it is an enduring love.”

The festivities of the evening include a PawPlay Concert, where visitors sit together with their furry dates to watch little-known artistes perform a medley of songs, whose decibel levels and musical beats are “paws-friendly”. “We want Freedom Farm to be the starting place for anyone who has a story to tell, through music, oral narrations or art,” says Muskaan Arora, a volunteer who played a key role in making the event a well-attended one. “Hence, the choice of unknown musicians to participate in the concert.”

Youngsters who volunteer at the shelter ensure that the animals here are not inconvenienced either by the noise of the PawPlay concert or the visitors milling around. “The idea of PawPlay came from the concerts happening all over,” says Arora. “We had heard that romantic proposals took place at some of them. So we thought of giving such an experience to animal lovers.”

Choosing a suitable companion for your pet is a responsibility that goes beyond just finding a friend for them to play with. “When seeking a partner for your pet, finding the right match requires patience, research and an understanding of the personalities and needs of both animals,” says Dhiren Singh.

The animals at Freedom Farm are bound by their sad stories of abandonment, violence, lack of love, and the inability to find forever homes. Snow, an Indian Spitz, was abandoned during the Covid lockdown; Labradors Snowy and Pooja were abandoned in separate incidents due to health reasons. Grace, an Indie dog became paraplegic due to human violence but has recovered miraculously at the shelter, while another Indie dog, April, was in a terrible state after children tied crackers to her tail and blasted them off.

April, dressed in a red shirt with white polka dots, hops around on three legs sniffing at visitors and two furry visitors. After a while, she just curls up and goes to sleep even as the happy din continues. Although the donkeys, Yug and Preeto, and the goat kid Feb are petted by many, the animals, after a while, distance themselves from the visitors, akin to indicating their lack of interest in meeting their match.

As night descends on Freedom Farm, Tomar and his team look happy, for some alliances have been made.