It’s no state secret that whereas some lucky dogs end up in good homes, a lot of them are left to fend for themselves on the streets.

The plight of all these puppers is not lost on 47-year old software engineer, Rakesh Shukla, who can call himself a loving parent to over 735 rescued dogs. He wasn’t always involved in animal rescue. What initially started as an endeavour to give a home to a 45-day old golden retriever, Kavya - his first rescue ever - turned into something that he never envisioned himself doing; building a full-fledged farm for hundreds of dogs. Initially, he would house dogs in his home, office or anywhere else he could find a spot but buying land in Dodballapur outside Bangalore and starting VOSD (Voice Of Stray Dogs), let him do this on a much bigger scale.

The road hasn’t been smooth, as you can imagine but there are supporters too. He has been getting donations from concerned citizens from across the country since his story became popular. They’re still not enough to completely run the farm, and he ends up spending about INR 50k per month from his own earnings to keep things running. He now has ten regular staff members to take care of the estimated three-and-a-half acre farm and regularly keeps adding more pooches to the roster as he finds them. He can be found on this farm three to four days every week, catering to his very large family.

The residents of the farm aren’t all street dogs; many are Pedigree breeds, abandoned by their owners. And then there are the 22 dogs previously owned by a businessman who was murdered by criminals. Every dog finds a home here and it’s bound to give you a warm, fuzzy feeling.

No matter where you stand on dogs - even though we highly doubt there’s any one who doesn’t naturally like them - you’d have to agree that due to Rakesh’s efforts, many otherwise-unlucky dogs have managed to find a loving parent and home, and would likely live to see full and healthy lives.

Want to help out? Get in touch with them here.

We first read about Rakesh here.