Paul O’Grady explores animal welfare in India

Tomorrow night on ITV Choice (DStv 123) sees the start of Paul O’Grady: For The Love Of Animals – India, a two-parter which follows Paul O’Grady as he heads into India to rescue and rehabilitate some of the world’s most amazing animals.

For the first time, O’Grady films at locations across India, meeting extraordinary animals old and young who are in desperate need of care, both within sanctuaries and in their natural environments.

Following in the footsteps of Animal Orphans and the award-winning For the Love of Dogs, O’Grady rolls up his sleeves like never before and immerses himself in the action-packed care of some astonishing creatures.

From an elephant that has spent 50 years in chains, to a monkey with a leg injury and a gang of baby rhinos with toilet troubles, O’Grady is prepared to go to any lengths to offer a helping hand.

Thanks to his unique ability to emotionally connect with the good, the bad and the ugly of the animal kingdom, For the Love of Animals – India promises a lot.

What did you make of India as a country?

Loved it … the atmosphere, the life, the energy.

The people are so optimistic. Some of them have got nothing. And yet they’re so optimistic. The kids are lovely. The scenery.

The food. Everything about it I absolutely loved.

But the cruelty to the animals, the elephants and the dancing bears. It’s heartbreaking. Here are some emotional moments.

Can you tell us a bit about meeting Mohan, the elephant who has spent over 50 years chained up?

Oh, I was in pieces. Mohan had just been brought into the sanctuary and he was in his 50s, badly emaciated, rutalised all his life, spent 50 years in chains .

He was laying down and he was skin and bone, you’ve never seen anything like it. I’m with him, talking to him and his head is next to mine, stroking him, and a big tear rolled out of his eye.

Oh my God, I lost the plot, completely. That finished me off.

Tell us about the bears.

What happened was, they would get a red-hot poker, and they put it through their muzzle. And then they put a rope through it.

Then they would take all their teeth out and take their claws away. And the reason they would dance was, because they pulled hard on the rope, the bear jumped up in pain.

They weren’t dancing, they were in agony. You are looking at a bear that’s in agony. It was outlawed in 1972 but continues because it was an income you see, for a lot of people, so you’ve got to find them something else to do.

They would take these bears round to various villages and make them dance and all the muzzles were hanging off and they got holes in their faces where the rope had ripped. It’s heart-breaking.

The cubs were often stolen from the mothers and the mothers killed. Then the bears were brutalised so that they became passive. It’s shocking.

Is it encouraging to see some of the efforts being made over there to help some of these animals?

It’s marvellous, it’s called Wildlife SOS, outside Agra, and they rescue working elephants, dancing bears, every animal really. They’re so committed. That’s all they care about.

I’d like to do something like that, to tell you the truth. I’d like to go for a year and just look after the elephants, the babies and the adults.

I get on really well with elephants, they just come to me and they sit and listen to me when I’m talking to them.

How would you sum up the series? What can viewers expect?

I hope they will learn a lot from it. And hopefully it will make them think twice before they go for a ride on an elephant’s back when they go on holiday.

That’s what I want to stop, that’s the aim of the game for me with this series.

Because that elephant’s been tortured and is crippled with arthritis from dragging people up and down hills all day, seven days a week for its entire life.

Also, if you see begging elephants outside temples, have nothing to do with them because you’re just encouraging a foul trade.

Any other highlights we can enjoy?

Yes! I promise there are lots of lighter moments too.

We went to the Taj Mahal, and it was closed. But two seconds later I turned my back and was feeding biscuits to all the street dogs outside. It’s all about the animals you know. But you do see what India looks like. And it is fabulous.

I mean, it’s rough and ready, you know, it’s not always pretty. But I love that, going round on one of those tuk-tuks in the backstreets. I felt like Indiana Jones!

It was fabulous. I loved it.

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