Animal Rahat brought relief to thousands of bullocks and ponies during this year’s Chinchali Fair. As you may remember, that’s the fair that celebrates the goddess Mayakka Devi—and for which fairgoers pile their whole families into carts, hitch the carts to bullocks or ponies (or one of each), and drive them up to 170 miles (273 kilometers) to the village of Chinchali.

While the fair is very exciting for humans, the journey there and back means extreme stress, exhaustion, and often severe injuries for thousands of bullocks and ponies, some of whom even collapse from the exertion.

Thanks to the generosity of Animal Rahat supporters, more than 1,250 animals were spared the ordeal of making this year’s arduous trip!

This was the result of the vigorous outreach that Animal Rahat had conducted for weeks in advance of the fair—including meeting with numerous panchayats (village councils)—to encourage people to use our free bus service to the fair and leave their animals at home.

We also set up two rest camps along the main route, where we provided more than 1,700 exhausted animals with rest, food, and water (and their owners with tea, something vital in getting them to stop). Because of your support, we were able to outfit the camps with water tanks, tea stalls, shade tents, animal feed, and sand baths (like dust bath areas) for ponies who needed to get off their sore feet.

Our veterinarians also provided animals with emergency treatment for lameness, wounds, serious digestive problems, and eye injuries, both at the camps and at the fair site.

And this year, the local police force—whose involvement we’ve successfully engaged for the past few years during the fair—took its responsibilities far more seriously, and its authority helped greatly with recalcitrant bullock and pony owners who wanted to press on even though their animals were suffering.

The police officers also helped us stop owners who were violating animal-protection laws, e.g., using heavy wooden yokes on ponies (their necks can’t support such weight), hitching bullocks and ponies together (this puts all the weight onto the pony’s neck, as the bulls are taller), engaging in excessive whipping, or using illegal devices such as yoke spikes made of barbed wire. This year, the police took the added measures of fining each violator and registering a “non-cognizable offense” against him or her (similar to a citation in the U.S.).

Knowing that they’ll incur actual penalties will greatly reduce future fairgoers’ willingness to flout animal-protection laws. It may also be the tipping point in persuading many families to choose Animal Rahat’s bus option in the future, preventing even more animals from suffering.

After working more than three days straight with almost no breaks, the Animal Rahat veterinarians and other team members were in need of a rest camp themselves! But seeing the relief that they brought to thousands of animals was extremely rewarding. All of us at Animal Rahat hope our supporters feel rewarded for making our vital work possible!