Virat Kohli The Dog Lover. Hits a ton with 15 dog adoptions at CARE, Benguluru.

When Captain of Indian Cricket team and Royal Challengers Bangalore, Virat Kohli visited an animal rescue shelter at Jakkur, a suburb of Bangalore a few days ago, he passively adopted fifteen dogs at the shelter and agreed to vouch for their upkeep at the Charlie’s Animal Rescue Centre (CARE).

CARE works towards rescuing, rehabilitating and eventually re-homing dogs and cats. Two of the centre’s volunteers were instrumental in orchestrating Virat’s visit to CARE. According to Sudha Nararyanan founder trustee of the organization, the trustees as well as the staff were not informed about the VIP’s name/status. However were only asked to ensure no media person was present at the premises during the time of the VIP’s trip.
Therefore ace batsman and Captain’s entrance was met by starry eyed surprise from one and all present at the center. Our Celeb cricketer surely received a real special welcome by CARE’s substitute- receptionist Dash, a special needs Labrador Dog often positioned at the foyer. (Image source- www.ntd.tv)

The center is currently home to 50 destitute dogs and five cats. Virat spent about an hour at CARE though in actuality the meeting was to only last for about 10 minutes. The captain was seen bonding with and handling the animals really well including a puppy with an amputated leg and a dog with a tumor on its spine. His animal lover streak soon took the form of concern for the rescued dogs and Indian mongrels.

Virat and Bruno as featured in Dogs
and Pups magazine

As per the onlookers’ accounts, Virat continued to ask questions about rescue operations, care/treatment of the animals, the adoption process as outlined by the organization and the trauma care unit set up by the center. He was also interested in getting to know about the facts and figures pertaining to the successful adoptions carried out thus far.

#IPL champion with his pet dog Bruno. Image – www.dogexpress.in

The icing on the cake was when Mister Kohli agreed to passively adopt 15 destitute dogs out of the 50 dogs suffering from some form of disability/difficulty such as blindness or paralysis of the lower body. Passive adoption is where the adoptive parent pays for the animal’s treatment, maintenance, vaccination and overall needs. Also said person is updated regularly about the well being of the adoptee through photographs and other means. The passive parent can visit the animal/s as and when he or she wants.  The celebrity guest lauded the organization’s efforts and concluded his meeting with a promise of visiting again soon. Kohli’s parting message to all was adopt don’t shop and he wanted the same to be put up by CARE on its official Facebook page according to Ms. Sudha.