Blue Cross of India

Blue Cross of India (BCI) runs hospitals and shelters for injured or unwell stray dogs, cats, cattle, horses, and birds in Chennai.

The BCI was established in 1959 by Captain V. Sundaram and his family, who was a member of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) in the early 1960s and again in the 1980s.

By 1996, as many as 135 dogs were killed each day by the corporation, which employed various methods including administering a saturated solution of magnesium chloride directly into their hearts, poisoning, electrocuting, clubbing to death and burying alive in pits covered with bleaching powder and pesticides.

In 1995, even as BCI started the ABC-AR programme in South Chennai, street dogs in other parts of the city were still caught and killed.

[1] Soon the corporations in other cities in India and around the world invited the then Chairman of the BCI, Chinny Krishna, to share the expertise in international conferences in Bratislava, Cairo, Sofia, Orlando, Hong Kong, Manila, Colombo, Riga, Amman, Singapore, Bali and Chengdu and to initiate the ABC-AR programmes in their cities.

[citation needed] In January 2019, BCI opened a geriatric ward for ageing stray dogs at a cost of ₹ 1 million.

[citation needed] The registered office is in Chennai, located at Eldams Road in Alwarpet, along with other outreach sites—such as hospitals, shelters, ambulance services and animal birth control (ABC) centers—in the city and in Pondicherry.

The main hospital and shelter facilities with ABC centres are located at Guindy and Kunnam in Kanchipuram district.

[citation needed] On 13 January 2013, the Blue Cross of India, along with a student's group known as 'spaaak' opened an aviary clinic at the Chennai centre to treat ailing birds.