FBS Talkies is a talk show presented by Fur Ball Story. It’s a series of episodes where various pet related issues are discussed with some highly reputed animal welfare workers, veterinary doctors & trainers.

1. FBS Talkies Episode 1
FBS Talkies is a talk show presented by Fur Ball Story. It’s a series of episodes where various pet
related issues are discussed with some highly reputed animal welfare workers, veterinary doctors &
trainers.
For the first episode of FBS Talkies, we had Ms. Aavritee Naithani as our guest speaker. She runs a
welfare center dedicated to animals by the name of Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Center (SGACC),
New Delhi. It was a very productive chat between Aavritee and our co-founder Animesh Katiyar.
Multiple issues related to life of a rescuer, how to rescue any animal, doctors at the welfare center,
were discussed. Moreover, some general behavioural issues that any pet faces and the steps to rectify
them were talked about.
Ms. Aavritee is a lawyer by profession and started working for the welfare of animals during 4th
year
of her college. Her shelter (SGACC) is the only animal care shelter in Delhi/NCR which is dedicated
to all animals. As of now it’s home to more than 2500 animals ranging from dogs, cats, equines,
cattle, injured wildlife and many more. As an animal shelter consultant and manager, it’s a highly
multi-tasking job for anyone who’s looking to work as an animal shelter manager like her. SGACC,
without any discrimination, is a haven for every animal who needs a home and especially those
who’re in the need of any type of medical care.
She further explained her shelter’s daily routine, in which they rescue about 5-10 animals daily with
the help of their self-owned, private, and government run ambulances. They’re fully equipped to
provide thorough care and treatment by their experienced vets and parameds.
The agenda of this video is to spread awareness among pet parents and welfare workers about their
rights and laws and to be overall self-sufficient to tackle any situation. Upon asking about the same,
Ms. Aavritee said that even before she became a lawyer, she educated herself about the basics of
lodging an FIR and how to approach police authorities to report any cruelty act. Further, she asserted
that every animal lover should be aware of “Prevention of Animal Cruelty Act” and have a copy of it
with them.
In her interview she quoted “One must be mentally prepared as their will be situations where you may
have to sit in the police stations for hours to exercise your rights and side by side educate the police
personnel too, as not everyone is aware about these laws”. She acknowledged that proper knowledge
of the ‘Prevention of animal cruelty act’ is important, also because this act itself consists of around
10-12 rules. Then she continued to explain that one can report any gruesome act against an animal
under Indian Penal Code (IPC) 428 & 429.
The discussion then moved to a very important question that lots of people need an answer to: “Is
there a future as a Vet / Shelter Manager/ Animal Welfare as a career?”. To which our guest
responded in affirmative, saying that, if people like her, who’re pursuing professional courses and are
educated, do not do anything for a social cause, then the whole point of education is a waste. Further
she informed, that there are many organizations even of international recognition that provide steady
career as well as income for working towards a social cause.
We got to know, that there’s also a skill development program known as ‘Animal Health Worker’
course provided by the government of India, which is a 6-month course related to development of
livestock and small animals, and anyone with a basic level of education can pursue this course.
The next question asked from Aavritee was “How is the life of a shelter manager and what should one
be prepared for?” She replied to this question by saying that being a shelter manager means facing

2. continuous criticism, at every step. She quoted ”It’s a continuous and thankless job, one must be
mentally prepared for it”.
There are two aspects to which she as a shelter manager gives the highest priority. First, ‘Hygiene’,
as half of the medical treatments go waste if there’s no proper hygiene. Second, ‘Training’ of new
people who want to join the movement as a shelter worker or as a medical staff. She iterated that the
job of a shelter manager, in all, is a multi-tasking job, for which one must be resourceful along with
being a problem solver to face all the challenges that come their way.
Moving forward, the next question for Aavritee focused on everyday issues: “What is the real reason
behind issues like dog biting, dog abandonment, Rwa/Soctiey issues etc and were they always there or
have come to the limelight in the recent times?”
She highlighted that there are many hate campaigns against animals in general, especially in the
metropolitan cities. She continued “Some of us are against their existence, even after being the reason
behind them being homeless and dying in the search of new shelters. We should try to peacefully co-
exist with each other rather than having vendettas against them.” She again informed that the
constitution has described a fundamental duty on citizens under article 51 AG, that they must be
compassionate towards their environment and living beings.
She was much concerned about the brutality against dogs and stated that “Dogs, without being a
reason for any financial or economic loss for anyone, are being unnecessarily tortured and tormented.
There are multiple incidents of such unprovoked brutality happening all over our country. Their main
concern is food, and that is what forces them to travel to different areas. If you cannot feed them, then
at least you should not restrain the ones who are.”
The last question for the episode was indeed a very common one “Why is that whenever we take our
pet dog’s out for walks the community dogs tend to follow and even if we want to rescue them
sometime, they avoid us with aggression?”
The answer to this was quite essential and to answer this, our founder, Mr. Animesh gave a quite
insightful answer. He said, stray dogs are very territorial in nature. Thus, at least for the initial days,
the local dogs are unable to understand the reason behind the pet dog’s presence, so they fear for their
resources being at risk. Animesh also added that pet parents should try to carry some food with them
while heading out for a walk with their pets and feed them, and that will eventually make the local
dogs accept the pet and understand that it is not an enemy but a friend.
He also added, when it comes to rescuing an anxious/aggressive dog there are two approaches, “First
is emergency, in which we must, unfortunately, also use force just to save the life of the dog. Not
everything in animal rescue/welfare is sunshine!”. He continued that “The second approach is a rather
evolving one. If it’s not an urgent case, we can also look forward to using herbal supplements to calm
down the dog.”
“To relax an anxious/stressed dog, a rescuer can switch to giving ashwagandha based tablet rather
than melatonin, which can be dangerous if over dosed. Ashwagandha is a safer alternative and is
scientifically proven to pacify an anxious/stressed dog.”
The bonus question for this episode for our guest was related to social media bullying. To this,
Aavritee answered that, “Be it an animal welfare worker or a pet parent, who owns a pedigree dog,
people tend to bully or comment on their social media posts without knowing the facts. Social media
platforms are available to everyone and people sitting in one corner of the country comment on
anything happening anywhere else, without even understanding whether it’s a genuine case/news or
verifying any facts.”

3. “This culture should be alerted and eventually put an end to. Many people and NGO’s that are
genuinely trying to do good work, suffer because of all this. Before forming an opinion about anyone
in this noble cause, one should verify the facts and gain proper knowledge about the same. One
should also not judge someone without giving any opportunity to defend their stance.
For our audience we’ve a surprise question as per the discussion: “Which act can be considered as the
bible of animal welfare and in which year was it imposed?”. One such question will be asked at the
end of every episode and the person who manages to answer them all will get a big gift hamper from
Fur Ball Story.