Meet Rakesh Shukla: From a techie to being Bengaluru's dog rescuer

When Rakesh Shukla founded tech firm TWB to create content and outsource technical communication to the likes of Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and NetApp nine years ago, little did he realise that three years later it would assume an alterego rescuing and rehabilitating abandoned dogs and strays.
"It all started in June 2009 when I bought Kavya, a Golden Retriever," Shukla told ET. "I had never owned a dog before that. I felt like I had become a father and wanted to take my responsibility seriously ."

The 43-year-old went on to bring home two strays, Lucky and Bella, and now raises 10 dogs at home. It was after a human-stray conflict incident back in 2011 that Shukla founded Voice of Stray Dogs (VoSD) to support strays. He created a comprehensive website that continuously posts research and information, helpful to all those to want to fight unfair laws of culling or ill-treating strays.

"VoSD is a completely personal initiative where only 3% expenditures are met by public donations and the rest is out of my own pocket," Shukla said. An engineer, Shukla ensured that VoSD involved state-of-the-art infrastructure like GPS trackers, four ambulances for roundthe-clock rescue and software that maintains health and food records of all dogs rescued.

Shukla's five-acre farm on Shukla's five-acre farm on the city's outskirts has about 500 dogs, apart from 50-odd dogs being treated at its trauma centre. To help him, he has a team of 25 para-vets, feeders handlers and others. "Today , we have around 560 dogs in our care. On an average, I spend `20,000 to cure one dog."

"The facility has saved a lot of dogs from falling prey to cruelty," said Dr Lohith HD of Bangalore Pet Hospital, Whitefield, who prescribes treatment to all VoSD's dogs."They follow a foolproof system where each dog's treatment is monitored. The health improvements can be seen during follow-up visits."

Overall, VoSD has rescued and treated more than 4,500 dogs, said Shukla, adding that most of these dogs were brought to their notice through public calls.

"Earlier, we entertained all calls, where many turned out to be fake. After a spate of bad experiences, we have decided that whoever wants to have a dog rescued has to register online and pay a nominal amount of Rs 2,500 per dog," said Shukla.

"This way , we will know that they are serious about what they want to do."