Exclusive: 17-year-old Rajveer Bansal opens up on his social start-up 'Teens For Tails' to help stray animals

As the coronavirus pandemic grips the country, it is the stray animals that are facing the consequences. Amid all of it, Rajveer Bansal has started a social initiative named Teens for Tails, a community of teenagers working on the streets to make tails wag. 

In an exclusive chat with DNA, Rajveer said that he always had a fondness for animals but the pandemic allowed him to do something for them on a larger scale. He said, "During the pandemic, the situation became worse for stray animals as hotels and restaurants shut down. I met with an animal activist and we started this community to help the animals who are without support and in need of help. We provide animals with food, water, or take them to an animal shelter so that they can find a loving home for themselves."

 

 

 

 

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 Jul 7, 2020 at 10:54pm PDT

Teens for Tails just within a few days of going live on Instagram also got many volunteers onboard across various cities to build a caring community to help stray animals. Elaborating on the same, Rajveer said, "We currently have 112 new requests out of which I filter out the ones who are serious about the initiative by having a one-on-one chat with them. As of now, we have 85 volunteers from various cities in India including Chandigarh, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Dalhousie, Gurgaon, among others. We want to and are using social media to reach out to a larger audience, community." 

Further to this, Rajveer plants to build a commerce platform wherein all the generated profit will come back to the cause.

Check out their Instagram page here. When asked about teaming up with volunteers, 17-year-old Rajveer narrated an incident when he came across a stray while taking his dog Kipper for a walk. Rajveer said, "A while back, during the winters, I was taking my dog Kipper for a walk and there was a dog on the footpath. She was shivering, cold, and was pregnant and there was no place on the footpath for her. I took her to a vet in Noida where I got her operated and she gave birth to five pups."

 

 

 

 

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 Jun 27, 2020 at 6:22am PDT

He further added, "I took the mother and her pups to the animal shelter after that and recently visited them too. She looked healthier and I am currently in the process of putting her pups up for adoption. Out of the five pups, one of them as a neuro condition so what happens is when he tries to walk, he falls every time because of nerve damage. But over time the vet says that she will recover and will do good, that makes me happy." 

Rajveer ended his chat saying that he loves to be of help to stray animals and whenever he sees an animal in need his first instinct is to always help them out.