British Couple Visited Kerala For Holiday 12 Years Ago, Stayed Back to Adopt 140 Street Dogs

Mary and Steve Muscroft decided to come visit India for a two-week holiday but on seeing the condition of the street dogs in the coastal town, decided to stay back to provide for them.

Love for pets can make people move mountains and in a similar fashion, a couple from the UK who had come down to India on holidays ended up staying back for over a decade. Their reason- they fell in love with the street dogs in Kerala’s Kovalam. Some 12 years ago, Mary and Steve Muscroft decided to come to visit India for a two-week holiday but on seeing the condition of the street dogs in the coastal town, decided to stay back to provide for them. And since then, the couple has stayed back and now helps rear close to 140 dogs and feed, shelter them, reports say.

At first, the couple had rescued two dogs but nobody came to adopt the dogs so the couple decided to do so. The duo then canceled their return tickets, rented out an apartment, and adopted the dogs. Since then, the two dogs kept increasing in numbers and what started off as an immediate connection to the two hapless creatures turned into a life-long mission to save and protect these street dogs.

“Over the past several years, we have got positive responses from everywhere. Right now, we have 140 dogs which were rescued from various places,” Mary was quoted as saying.

Mary, 52 was a former RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) volunteer from Middlesex, and her husband, the 62-year-old Steve ran a manufacturing business in Bradford before retiring.

The couple’s noble work has expanded over the years and they have started an NGO named Street Dog Watch and under it, they have been rescuing, vaccinating, and sterilizing dogs in their area and they are now also looking to crowdfund for their birth control and anti-rabies efforts. They have also put in £300,000 of their own money (Rs 31,075,800) into Street Dog Watch and are also often helped by fundraisers and locals and friends and tourists who come to visit them.

Source: News18