What to Do If You Find an Injured Street Animal in Faisalabad

Most people who call our rescue helpline have never handled an injured animal before. They were walking to work, or driving home, and they saw a dog lying at the roadside. What happens in the next few minutes often decides whether that animal lives.

Here is what to do — and just as importantly, what not to do.

1. Keep your distance at first

An animal in pain is frightened, and a frightened animal can bites. This is not aggression; it is instinct. Stop a few metres away and watch for thirty seconds. Is the animal breathing? Can it lift its head? Is it trying to move away from you or towards you? These observations tell a rescue team more than you might think.

Never approach a dog that is growling, showing teeth, or backed into a corner with nowhere to go. Never approach an animal in the middle of moving traffic — safety comes first, always.

2. Call for help before you touch anything

Call or send a WhatsApp message to our rescue helpline on +92 308 8181122. Three things make the biggest difference to how fast we can reach the animal:

A photo or a short video. Our veterinary team uses it to judge how serious the injury is and which cases to dispatch first.

The exact location. A WhatsApp location pin is ideal. If you cannot send one, describe the nearest landmark, shop name or road junction.

Your phone number, so our rescuers can call you when they are close.

Every call ends the same way — an animal safely in our hands

3. Do not give food or water to a badly injured animal

This surprises people, and it is one of the most important points on this page. An animal with internal injuries, a head injury, or one that may need emergency surgery can choke on food or water, or aspirate it into the lungs. If surgery is needed, a full stomach makes anaesthesia more dangerous.

If the animal is alert, standing, and clearly only mildly hurt, a little water is usually fine. If it is lying down, dazed, bleeding heavily or unable to lift its head, wait for the rescue team.

4. Do not try to move the animal yourself

A dog hit by a car may have a spinal injury that you cannot see. Lifting it wrongly can turn a treatable injury into a permanent one. Our rescuers are trained to stabilise and lift animals safely, and they carry the equipment to do it.

There is one exception: if the animal is lying in live traffic and you can safely stop or divert vehicles, do that instead. Protecting the animal where it lies is safer than carrying it.

5. Stay nearby if you can

Street animals move. A dog that crawls into a drain or under a parked car while you are waiting can become impossible to find. If it is safe for you to wait at a distance and keep the animal in sight, please do. It is the single most helpful thing a caller can do.

6. What happens after you call

Our helpline receives more than thirty calls a day. Each one is triaged by severity — the most life-threatening cases go first. When our team arrives, the animal is stabilised and taken to our Second Chance Animal Hospital, where it receives emergency treatment and, if needed, surgery.

Animals that recover fully are returned to their own territory or placed for adoption. Those that can never survive on the streets again — the paralysed, the blind, the elderly — are given a permanent home at our sanctuary. No healthy or treatable animal is ever put down.

If you are not in Faisalabad

Look for a local animal welfare organisation before an emergency happens, and save the number in your phone. In a city with no rescue service, contact the nearest veterinary clinic and ask whether they will treat a street animal — some will, especially if someone is willing to cover the cost of medicines.

Every rescue starts with an ordinary person deciding not to walk past. Thank you for being that person.