Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre

India's oldest and Asia’s largest all-animal shelter, the Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre (SGACC) was founded in 1980 from a legacy bequeathed by the late Mrs Ruth Cowell of New South Wales, Australia to Sanjay Gandhi.

A foundation set up in her memory, The Ruth Cowell Foundation, resolved to establish an animal care centre in Delhi that would serve as a prototype for other centres around India. The hospital-cum-shelter was envisaged as a 24x7 facility that would rescue, home, treat, and rehabilitate animals; serve as a training centre for vets and animal handlers; run an OPD; offer diagnostic services; provide burial facilities; and serve as a holding centre for animals of cruelty cases.

Inaugurated in September 1983, the SGACC is home to over 3000 animals at any given point. Spread over four acres of tree covered land in West Delhi’s Raja Garden, between Shivaji College and the Home Guards' HQ, it assures space in a secure natural environment for animals and birds. SGACC is open 24/7 and runs a round-the-clock free animal ambulance service and helpline. Its busy OPD treats over 200 animals a day providing medical, diagnostic, surgical, and dental services. It is part of the city municipality's ABC (Animal Birth Control) programme wherein it sterilises and vaccinates street dogs. It works closely with the police to take in and care for animals confiscated in cruelty cases such as overloading and neglectful ownership. It organises a thrice weekly adoption stall at a shopping mall through which it has placed over 2000 Indian puppies in loving homes. Under the patronage of Maneka Gandhi, this pioneering facility named after her husband, Sanjay Gandhi, has thus flourished into a well-staffed, well-equipped, veterinary centre that is a boon for animals and their well wishers.

While the Chairperson, Maneka Gandhi, visits regularly and is actively involved, the day-to-day management is headed by the Hospital Director while veterinary services are supervised by the Medical Director. Each separate department has an administrative head.