I know that at first glance, there doesn’t appear to be an animal in the photo of this 70-foot-deep well, above. But the photo below gives a closer look.

Huddled on a ledge just above the water line was this exhausted, starving, terrified dog. A villager called Animal Rahat and explained that he had just learned from other locals that this dog had been in the well for three days! Even though this well had a wall around it (unlike many in India, which are simply huge holes in the ground), he had apparently jumped over the wall while chasing a deer.

Animal Rahat immediately dispatched a rescue team. A team member carefully descended on a rope and caught the dog with a net that had been lowered by other team members. The frightened pup panicked, but fortunately we anticipated that this might happen and had a sedative-filled syringe at the ready. Within a few minutes, he went limp, and the team gently pulled him to safety.

The team veterinarian then gave him a thorough examination (miraculously, he wasn’t injured) and stood watch to make sure that he recovered from the anesthetics without any problems before releasing him back into the village. Our team wholeheartedly thanked the caller, whose outreach to Animal Rahat had saved the dog from slowly starving to death.