00:00One sound of the car horn and they instantly know who's here.
00:08Stray dogs sprint to meet the man who has fed them every single day without fail for the past 14 years.
00:18Fondly known as Virya Appu, 65-year-old Virya Raman works as a lorry driver by day
00:25while single-handedly feeding around a hundred stray dogs in the Gombat region every evening.
00:33Living in Kampong Indian settlement Batu Caves,
00:36Virya cooks around 25 kilograms of rice with chicken daily for the dogs.
00:43While friends and relatives assist him in the kitchen, the bulk of the responsibility
00:48for feeding and rescuing the dogs rests on his shoulders.
00:53Despite his asthma, he tirelessly loads tubs of food into his Kanchil car and travels along Jalan Gombat,
01:03stopping at various locations to feed the strays there, even if there are only three or four of them at a time.
01:11At an isolated quarry where people frequently abandon their pets, the dogs are left alone with no scraps to eat.
01:19In this harsh reality, Virya is their lifeline.
01:37And he wasn't wrong. The dogs, young, old, small, big and a few even injured and disabled,
01:45could not wait to gobble down the food brought by Virya,
01:48eagerly sticking their heads deep into the tub to get at every scrap.
01:54Speaking with FMT Lifestyle, Virya shared that it all began in 2010
01:59when he witnessed a heart-wrenching scene on the streets.
02:15When he first started feeding the strays, it was with leftover food in his mouth.
02:21He would eat the leftover food in his mouth.
02:24He would eat the leftover food in his mouth.
02:27He would eat the leftover food in his mouth.
02:30He would eat the leftover food in his mouth.
02:33He would eat the leftover food in his mouth.
02:36He would eat the leftover food in his mouth.
02:39He would eat the leftover food in his mouth.
02:42When he fed the strays, it was with leftover food that he collected from restaurants.
02:46However, during the pandemic, one of the hardest times for strays in Malaysia,
02:51he began cooking fresh food daily.
02:54He spends around RM300 each day.
02:58Largely funding this effort out of his own pocket,
03:02he is now reaching out to members of the public for donations
03:06so he can continue being a lifeline for unfortunate strays in his area.
03:12TVA Ragu, FMT Lifestyle
Comments