In the past two months lakhs of migrant workers have taken the difficult challenge of heading back to their homes on foot. Tired, exhausted and hungry, we have seen all kinds of heart-wrenching pics from their exodus on the Internet.
But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. Despite fears that animals could spread coronavirus, many of these migrant workers gave us lessons in humanity by not abandoning their pet animals. They decided to take their pets along as they travelled miles and miles.
1. These migrant workers were spotted walking with their pets on Mumbai-Nashik highway. They refused to abandon their pets at any cost.
2. This exhausted migrant worker was spotted carrying her pet dog on her shoulders, because it apparently “gets tired very soon”.
3. This migrant family was spotted travelling from Panipat to Bundelkhand on a makeshift vehicle with their pet dog, Tommy.
They had adopted this street dog in 2018, when it was 40 days old and decided to undertake a 700-km long journey taking him along. Kumar, head of the family, who worked as a street vendor in Panipat, said:
His mother had delivered a litter of puppies and he (Mr Tommy) used to keep coming to our house and nibbled on food and drank water. Since then he has become part of our family and we adopted him.
4. This migrant family was spotted heading towards Anand Vihar ISBT in Delhi with their pet dog.
5. This woman stopped on her way in Gurugram to give water to her pet rabbit in scorching heat.
6. This woman was spotted aboard a Shramik Special train with her pet dog.
7. This family of migrants was spotted walking with their pets on a highway in Kolkata.
In the face of all adversities, they could have chosen the most convenient option of leaving their pets behind, but they did not.