| Address: Mumbai City, Maharashtra, 400058 |
A few months months back, i had to give away my two guinea pigs to bhavan's nature park in andheri (Bhavan's nature and adventure centre - official forum). They were absolutely adorable but, being a bachelor with a job, it was difficult to manage them especially when i had to leave town.
My vet suggested relocating them to bhavan's park. It seemed like a natural habitat for them, being with other cavies, taken care of by someone all day and checked on by the same vet on a weekly basis.
It broke my heart to give them away but i did it in their best interests. I made a point to visit the park every weekend until in may, when i had to go out of mumbai for a couple of weeks. This is when things took a nasty turn.
On my return to the park, i could not find my pets!
On inquiring, prabhu, the chief care taker, told that they must be hiding some place. I stayed put for a couple of hours, patiently waiting for them to turn out, all this while constantly calling out their names from outside their enclosure.
Meanwhile my friend requested another care taker to look inside the enclosure for them.
But they were nowhere to be found. Something felt amiss but i tried to avoid the thought.
On further questioning, he started cooking up excuses - they might have been relocated to another area since its crowded here. I realized he was lying as it was not crowded at all and the other area he was talking about was used for treating injured animals, and also because i could see the lie on his face!
I asked, “ok, can you just bring them out from where ever so that i could meet them?”
The care taker responded, “no, we are not allowed to go inside, only prabhu can go. It's sunday today, the park is open for public. Come on monday before 6 pm.”
I told him i would return on monday morning.
I was worried sick and i called prabhu the next day, asking him if coco and tiki were fine?
He reassured me that they were perfectly fine. I told him i would come back to meet them.
He emphatically told me, 'sure you can come”.
Come monday and i was on my way. I was excited about meeting my pets again and i made the long one-and-a-half-hour journey from my house with great optimism.
On my arrival, i was greeted with a prompt reply - too late, times up.
I was aghast - but i just called you up informing about my arrival and you said yes!!
“that is all fine, but you can't meet them at this hour.”
Trying our best to keep calm, my friend asked, “could you please just click a photo of them in front o[censored]s. We stand right here, won't go in with you.”
But they were having none of this - nothing happening.
And then i saw devil.
“mam you are not allowed to visit this place more than a couple of times, once you have given up your pets.”
I never gave gave up on my pets. I still haven't.
He had never ever mentioned this until today and i had been visiting them since a long time. However, this was not mentioned in the paper work anywhere.in fact, the paper work was such a sham that there are no guidelines and no rules mentioned anywhere. They simply took my name and address at the beginning. No proof of identity required! This meant that anyone could come and take the animals from there by writing fraudulent and made up names and addresses.
It galled me to think that they could be anyone from shady pet shop owners or butchers for that matter. The thought made me sick to the stomach.
Meanwhile some rogue employee at bhavan’s by the name of ankit, came and said - i talked to prabhu, come next monday and take away your god damn pigs…. Umm, you know what, chuck it, we would send you a few clicks.
I was furious, “what do you mean you will send me photos? You have to click them in front o[censored]s!”
After bickering for a while, they agreed that we could come and meet them the next day at 12 pm.
We came exactly at 12 the next day.
I got straight to the point and asked, “hi prabhu, can i please meet my guinea pigs?”
His reply was a hammer blow - but we gave them up for adoption.
What was this some hangover movie happening?
At this moment, i completely flipped off. “what the hell does that mean? Why were you blatantly lying all this while? Why did you call us multiple times, only to give us different excuses every time!!!”
Prabhu was at his mafia best - yeah, gave them up three days ago.
5 minutes later - actually a week ago.
His shameless lying made us want to bang our heads against the wall. He again showed us the form with just the name and address of the sham adopter.
We called the given number.
I asked the man on the other side - sir you got two guinea pigs from nature park lately?
The reply - what guinea pigs?
Bhavan’s was fully exposed at this point of time. I was angry and tearful and did not know how to react to this betrayal.
I think it is important to bring my experience out in the open to warn others who might be thinking that this nature park is a safe place for their pets.
It will not bring my pets back but at least it will prevent anyone else from losing their pets nasty fraudulent centers such as bhavan’s.
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