Meet 'Dogman' Viren Sharma from Jaipur

"I love animals, and I don’t think that it has been given to me or I have adapted it from some outer world, I think it has been inherited, it is within. Every human being has a special place for animals in their heart, we just need to explore the possibilities and it can only be felt once you have been in touch with the animal, be it a dog, a cat, or even a cow.

There hasn’t been any special moment or any incident that has inspired me to love these animals. But yes, during the lockdown I was very much worried about these mute helpless companions because I know that we, the humans, have the capacity to arrange things for ourselves, but these voiceless creatures, the cows, dogs, and monkeys, who are completely dependent on the urban population aren’t. During the lockdown, people went in an invisible mode so it was the question of their survival and that was the one thing that motivated me to do something for them.

The moment I started taking care of our voiceless friends, I never knew that it will become something of mass interest and everybody will start doing it. But I believe my initiative has actually motivated so many people and they have started feeding the stray animals on their own. And it has actually helped these voiceless animals survive at least one more day.

I have been feeding stray animals since I was a kid but I didn’t use to share it on social media. I started to share my videos of feeding stray animals because I wanted to motivate people that they can also do it. I was too little to reach all those thousands and millions of stray dogs around us who always have been a part of our society but have always been deprived of their existence. So that’s why I started publishing videos and photos on my social media handles and that’s how they came into the frame.