Furryghor, the first-ever boarding house for pet animals in Bangladesh, where a person can keep their cats and dogs temporarily with safety and security maintaining hygiene, began its journey at Mirpur Zoo Road in Dhaka city.
The founding owners of Furryghor said that they felt the urge to set up a boarding house for pet animals as there was no such place in Bangladesh where a pet owner could keep their animals for daycare or night stay.
A total of 14 cats and three dogs can stay at the boarding house at a time, with authorities providing separate living and playing spaces and medical care.
Architects and animal rights activists Nuzhat Nabila and Rakibul Haque Emil have founded the foster house along with digital marketer Khalid Farhan aiming to provide the much-needed service to the pet owners.
Nuzhat Nabila said that their aim was to ensure safety, security and healthy space for pets as many people considered pets as their children.
‘If a person goes on a trip or other emergency purposes, they can leave their child to the care of their relatives, but they cannot leave their pets to people who are not used to handling animals. Here we will take care of them like our child,’ Nuzhat added.
She said that they would charge Tk 500 for a cat and Tk 1,500 for a dog every 24 hours from 8:00am to 8:00am.
‘However, if someone keeps their pets for five or seven days, the price will be reduced,’ she added.
Furryghor will also house a cafeteria, a place for entrepreneurs where they can display and sell their products, she said.
‘Many new entrepreneurs cannot provide an address, but doing business online. The place will give a chance to use our address and showcase their product. We’ve already made contact with three people. Many sellers are showing interest, but we are searching for entrepreneurs,’ said Nuzhat.
Only environment and animal-friendly projects will be prioritised, she added.
She said that they brought the entire foster under the CCTV surveillance and owners were monitoring the footage.
‘If parents want to see their pets through joining in a video call, they can also see the CCTV footages as well. We have one manager and two caregivers,’ she added.
She said that the caregivers would provide food on time and take care of their toilet facilities with proper drainage round the clock.
There are some facilities for pets, including a refrigerator and an oven for maintaining proper diet and open spaces for playing where they cannot mix with one another.
The living room for cats is 16 square feet and for dogs 54 square feet.
‘There is also a medical facility for animals in the same building named Paw Life Care,’ she added.
One of the owners, Rakibul Haque Emil said, ‘If any animals die or get wounded, our doctors will give certificates and parents can see the CCTV footage if we have any negligence or not.’
Rakibul is also the founder and chairman of the People for Animal Welfare Foundation, a non-profit organisation, which works for animal welfare.
He said that their targeted people were animal lovers, who loved their pets as their children.
Speaking about their future plan, Rakibul said, ‘We have plans to launch human education programme in the coming days engaging elementary level school students so that they can spend time with animals and grow humane.’
‘We want to construct a resort on the outskirts of Dhaka, where people can spend time along with their pets. We will also give a portion of our earnings to the PAW Foundation for animal welfare,’ he added.
