PHOTO COURTESY OF AYNA AGARWAL Sixteen-year-old Ayna Agarwal, of Colonia, a junior at Wardlaw-Hartridge School in Edison, works with a kitten during her visit to an animal shelter and veterinarian hospital in New Delhi, India, in August. Agarwal has created SPOT (Stop Pet Overpopulation Together) globally, which is a global campaign to help protect animals and humans from dangerous diseases and overpopulation. WOODBRIDGE — Sixteen-year-old Ayna Agarwal has transformed her love of animals into her own organization called SPOT (Stop Pet Overpopulation Together) Globally, to support spaying and neutering cats and dogs worldwide, especially in Third World countries.
“Believe it or not, animal overpopulation is a global endemic, and it harms animals and humans alike,” she said. “I believe spaying and neutering is the 100 percent effective way to protect animals.”
Ayna, of Colonia, explained that SPOT Globally is a global campaign to help protect animals and humans from dangerous diseases and overpopulation. She traveled to New Delhi, India, (where her family is originally from) for two weeks in August with her mother, Rosie, and saw firsthand how veterinarians in India work and how animals in the country live.
“Their surgeries are completely different than the surgeries in the United States,” said Ayna. “There barely is sterilization used, and doctors don’t wear gloves … it is just a bad situation, but they get by.”
Ayna’s mother said that at first she was hesitant about her daughter’s aspirations.
“I didn’t think she could do it,” said Rosie, who was worried about her daughter working in animal shelters and hospitals in Third World countries. “But I saw how passionate she was about it, and I am very proud of her taking an initiative.”
Ayna, who has been a vegetarian for over two years, announced her idea to her mother midway through her sophomore year at the Wardlaw-Hartridge School in Edison.
“I had always been active with fundraising for animals, starting when I was 9,” she said. “I have probably raised a total of $2,500 since I started fundraising.”
Ayna said spreading the word about her organization could not be done without her family.
“For them to have the confidence in me and put a lot up for me … it’s good to have my family on my side,” said Ayna, who added that her brother, Neil, had to sometimes skip his summer college classes to drive her around.
Ayna, now a junior at the school, has documented her experiences in India and is working on expanding her project into a featured documentary.
“Every summer, I would like to travel to countries and document my observations at different veterinarian hospitals and shelters,” said Ayna.
“I am in the works of traveling to Bangkok, Thailand, next summer and hope to travel to Venezuela, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Romania, and many more places. I hope to post this documentary online, create CDs, and just try to promote my message.”
Ayna held fundraisers for her trip to India, collecting $1,200 to give to the privately owned veterinarian hospitals and shelters she visited in India.
“I reached out to the government in India, and they were very helpful in finding me hospitals and shelters to visit,” she said.
Ayna and her mother said they saw devastating conditions when they traveled to India.
“The shelters are insanely crowded with over 200 dogs and 100 cats in just two rooms,” said Ayna. “There are fleas and bugs all over the place, and the smell of sewage from the market place.”
Ayna said she and her mother saw a dog come in with a broken leg after it had been hit by a car, and there were dogs with paws that had maggot wounds, and much more.
“These dogs had holes in their bodies because of these maggots, and we could actually see the skull of one of these dogs,” she said.
Ayna said the treatment of animals in India is based on two extremes.
“The animals either are treated very well or not treated well at all,” said Ayna.
“An owner may bring their dog in and tell the veterinarian that their dog is not eating … it’s not that the owner is not caring for the dog, they may not consider that the dog is depressed or not,” she said.
Ayna explained that many things need to be taken into consideration when caring for animals.
“There needs to be more education,” she said. “Some owners may not know that turning on the air conditioner and leaving the dog in the bedroom might cause the dog to get pneumonia, and some owners overfeed their animals.”
Ayna said the other extreme is that owners use their dogs as guard dogs and just keep the dog outside.
“In the U.S., we have so much more education,” she said.
Ayna was recently accepted to the Teen Advisory Board for the Humane Society of the United States, where she is able to act as a role model for younger children as well as exchange ideas with students like her all around the U.S.
“I want to help be a change in my community and in the world,” Ayna says on the Humane Teen Web site.
The 16-year-old was featured as one of CNN’s “Young People Who Rock” in July.
“I was thrilled and immediately thought how many people I could be reaching with my message,” she said.
Ayna said her love of animals began when her father, Shashi, brought home a bichon frise, named Muffy, who is now one of her many pets.
“I used to be scared of dogs, because a dog had bit me and left a scar on my right arm,” she said. “But when my father brought home Muffy when I was in fourth grade, I fell in love with her.”
Ayna said her love of Muffy is the reason why she wants to become a veterinarian with her own practice and continue to work in international countries.
The 16-year-old also has a 5-year-old Lhasa apso named Chester, and parakeets.
“We had two great parakeets and had lizards in the past,” said Ayna. “We would have cats, but my brother and dad are allergic to them. And now that my brother and I are not home as much, we tend to just babysit our friends’ dogs.”
Ayna volunteers her time at the Angel Paws animal shelter in Colonia, and this summer she held a Paws and Claws summer camp program for third- to fifth-graders at the Edison YMCA.
“As part of my Girl Scout Gold Award project, I proposed an idea to the director of the Edison YMCA to plan a weeklong camp in July focusing on animal welfare and protection,” said Ayna. “It was so popular … we had visits from a Seeing Eye dog, K-9 dogs, shelter pets, visits from reptiles — it was a great variety.”
According to the Girl Scout Web site, the Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award that Girl Scouts ages 14 to 18 can earn. The Gold Award project can be something that a girl can be passionate about or something that fulfills a need within a girl’s community, whether it is locally or globally, creates change, and hopefully is something that becomes ongoing.
Ayna said the camp was supposed to be a one-shot thing, but it was so popular that YMCA officials asked her to run the program again.
“I will run it next year and then continue to prep the next person to run the camp when I am away at college,” she said.
Ayna said her original idea for her Gold Award project was to push for the development of a dog park in the township of Edison.
“I presented my idea to the Edison Council, and there were several places we looked at,” she said. “I am continuing to push for the dog park.”
In August, after the camp, Ayna traveled to Boston for a two-week program to work with veterinarians before heading to India.
Ayna said she is continually working on setting up fundraising activities for her organization at her school and other places.
She is also active in school activities, including the Model United Nations student club, the choir and band. She is the co-editor in-chief of the yearbook, the vice president on her student council, and is on the tennis team.
For more information about SPOT Globally, visit the Web site http://sites.google.com/site/aynasangels/ or e-mail Ayna at [email protected].
Contact Kathy Chang at [email protected].