Dr. Shivendra Rathore was not someone who became a veterinarian because he loved animals. Like most people who take vet medicine, he joined because family and friends adviced of the doctor status and ease of getting a govt. job. It was only after he started working with animals that he started to fall in love with his work and the animals that he was working for.
He started working as a veterinarian in Humane Society International /India and went to Kerala as program manager for the ABC and vaccination program at Malappuram district of Kerala. That was where he saw animal suffering around him and understood how he as a vet could make a difference for the animals. Being a vet was no more just a job for him but a passion to help the voiceless.
He started writing about animals on social media to spread awareness on them and his #100daysofcelebratinganimals was a well accepted and appreciated campaign that he did where every single day, for 100 days, he wrote about the happy and sad stories of animals as well as various ways that people could understand animals better and help them. It led him to start a Facebook page called 'Celebrating Animals', which has more than 14k followers in less than a year and a place of celebrating the voiceless beings that we share our planet with.
Before he left Kerala, he adopted two abandoned animals from Malappuram district, a paralyzed cat as well as an old GSD abandoned due to her hip issues. He now works with ALAI Rescues as their veterinary surgeon at the shelter and has adopted one more cat. He and his 3 babies are an example of how a veterinarian can practice what he preaches. His dream is to improve pain management of animals in India and make the community understand animals better and for the veterinary profession to not just be production industry based but compassion based too.
