The whisperer of cattle from Tiruvallur
stroking a little calf Nelson, Sai Vignesh, remembers that the mother of the calf had a unique manner of “speaking” to him. The animal activist called the police and hurried to the pregnant cow’s rescue after learning that she was about to be killed unlawfully. But she was no longer in sight. They were ready to give up on the hunt and go off when the cow let out a mooing sound from a pit behind some bushes.
She screamed out to me, in my opinion, to rescue her unborn calf. Plastic in her rumen caused her to die away lately. Since then, my mission has become stronger,” Sai declares. The creator of Almighty Animal Care Trust and Animal Sanctuary in Senranyanpalayam, Tiruvallur, the 23-year-old cattle whisperer is also preparing for the UPSC exam. The sanctuary is home to 138 cattle, including cows, calves, buffalo, and bulls, as well as 37 goats, 112 dogs, eight hens and roosters, three pigs, horses, three rabbits, and a donkey.
He pulled two puppies out of the water during the 2015 Chennai floods, which was his first rescue operation. He remarked, “I soon rescued a few more dogs and provided them with shelter in my Chennai home.” “Cancer claimed my beloved dog for me. Thus, I was unable to watch their suffering in silence,” he said.
Alagu Sundaram, my grandpa, encouraged me in my endeavors together with my parents. He used to pay me his monthly pension of Rs 30,000 for saving animals till he passed away, Sai added. When he began sharing his rescue stories online, a lot of people contacted him with information regarding ill and wounded animals. “We had 20 rescued dogs at my house soon, which caused problems with my neighbors and landlords.” His family was forced to move eight times between 2015 and 2019 as a consequence.
Sai realized that he could do more if he had a place to stay for the animals. He asked for assistance from the now-retired Coal India employee Sivamani, an animal enthusiast. Eight acres of land were generously provided by the animal enthusiast for the Senranyanpalayam animal refuge, where the Trust is located. According to Valarmathi, Sivamani’s wife, her husband used to routinely feed around 70 dogs. “Sai Vignesh’s commitment carries on his legacy.” Dozens of dogs leap up and around him as he enters his shelter home, wagging their tails; some even smell his legs while placing their paws on his chest. The parents of Anu Vidhya, a hiker and animal lover, constructed this shelter. 2018 saw her pass away in Kurangani. Her ambition was to construct a dog shelter. She then asked her parents for assistance,” Sai said.
According to Sai, he had only been saving dogs until 2020. That would all change, however, when he discovered an illicit slaughterhouse in Tiruvallur where a pregnant cow had been slaughtered by removing the fetus from her womb. He realized then that the state did not have any suitable shelter houses for cattle. Sai Vignesh breaks down in speech as he feeds the calf Kumaresan, explaining how his mother Sivagami, who was eight months pregnant, was slashed on her legs and back for walking into a compound to eat banana leaves. She was unable to stand due to the maggot infestation in her wounds. She was saved, and the ICU of the sanctuary received her. Kumaresan is a kid of miracles. The dystocia made the labor difficult. Soon after, Sivagami passed away,” he said. Kumaresan gallops up to his friend Nelson, who was the victim of an acid assault and has scars on his neck and head in addition to broken ears. Similar to Nelson, Sai had filed lawsuits and successfully saved several livestock. “The law makes it quite plain that unless the culprits are shown to be innocent, the animals cannot be restored to them. In the last four years, I have saved approximately 150 cattle; some of them were transferred to other shelters because of a shortage of room. At the age of 17, he began battling against the trafficking in wild animals, which resulted in almost ten threats of death. A guy attempted to assault him with a machete in November 2023. Since then, he has been given police protection by the Madras High Court.
“I get around Rs 4 lakh every month from 22 contributors. In addition, I make around Rs 1 lakh from site design each month. This is insufficient. I’ve sometimes had to borrow money with interest from lenders, friends, and family. I now owe over Rs 35 lakh,” Sai said. Nonetheless, he is adamant about continuing to save animals and plans to construct a free veterinary facility. “We think that a life can only be saved by God. The animals endure daily suffering since they are unable to speak out against the injustice and misery they encounter. Their gods are the ones who save them. The only thing that separates animals and humans is that the former choose to love us a bit more.
