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| Anya Agarwal, an extraordinary teen on a mission for animals. |
Fifteen-year-old Ayna Agarwal will never forget the day she was visiting New Delhi, India when she saw so many helpless dogs on the street with infections and missing paws, which is why the Edison, New Jersey teen founded Stop Animal Overpopulation Together Globally. It is also why she was recently featured on CNN's "Young People Who Rock".
The HSUS talked to Agarwal about her drive to change things for the better for animals.
The HSUS: What did you see in India that inspired you to help animals?
Ayna Agarwal: In India, there are stray animals EVERYWHERE. It seems like there are more dogs and cats than people on the streets. Many of them are diseased or hurt, eating out of the garbage and struggling for survival. Unfortunately almost no one owns a pet.
A sight I would never forget was a puppy in the middle of the street rolling around in pain, with no one helping. I was heartbroken, and I promised myself that I would help change the lives of these animals.
HSUS: Can you tell us about the organization you founded?
Agarwal: I started "SPOT Globally" or Stop Animal Overpopulation Together Globally, to spay and neuter cats and dogs worldwide, specifically in third-world countries. Spaying and neutering is the 100 percent most important thing to do to end the homeless animals problem.
I hope to raise over $5,000 just this summer. I am putting about 100 collection cans in businesses around my town. I am writing letters requesting donations from family and friends. During the next school year I plan on running many fundraising events, ranging from raffles to penny wars, along with creating PowerPoints and other educational presentations for the students in my school.
My school is great in helping spread the word about global issues. I am partnering with a shelter in India, who is sending me information packets and am instituting a spaying/neutering/rabies vaccination program. The shelter is going to take stray animals and 'fix' them while vaccinating them for rabies.
I also hope that the money can create a food shelter to feed the fixed animals. In the next coming years, with a successful program, I hope to expand my project to countries like Thailand and Romania where the overpopulation is similar to New Delhi, India.
HSUS: Are you working to help pets in the United States too?
Agarwal: Yes, I have this GREAT opportunity this summer to run a week-long YMCA camp for students in grades 3-5 focused on animal welfare! I am running it all by myself and I get to design the camp from scratch. It's called Paws and Claws. I've requested information from Humane Society Youth to help, and I plan on using some of the lessons and KIND News that they sent me. I want the kids to have as much fun as they can.
I am also creating a dog park to raise awareness for the animal shelters in my community. I also am continuously doing community food drives for the neighborhood shelters in my school and local libraries.
And I can never stop just educating and telling people about helping animals all over. I want to help be a change in my community and in the world!
HSUS: You were recently interviewed on CNN Live on the "Young People Who Rock" segment, how did they find out about you?
Agarwal: I was nominated by Humane Society Youth, the youth education division of The HSUS. I am a Teen Advisory Board member for HumaneTeen, which is a website created just for teens where they can get advice, share interests, and learn about the issues affecting animals.
HSUS: What advice do you have for other young people who want to get involved?
Agarwal: Teens can get involved in HumaneTeen and Mission: Humane projects. Mission: Humane are action projects to help animals in areas they need it most. There are five specific projects, and one is Help Homeless Animals. This project is designed for teens and younger kids to work with their local shelters to help raise awareness about spay/neuter and adopting shelter pets (instead of buying pets from a store which almost always come from puppy mills).
They can also fundraise to help raise money for the shelter and many creative fundraising ideas are found on the HumaneTeen site. If you need advice the Teen Advisory Board is a great panel of kids to ask, you can post comments in the forum at the HumaneTeen site.
Whatever anyone wants to do, make sure to put your 100 percent into it, and don't let anyone bring you down!
Watch the CNN.com Live interview»
