Sahiba: In times when people are hooked on to social networking sites primarily with the intention of meeting up with old friends or making new ones here is one social networking site with the a cause. Petnopolis.com comes as a breath of fresh air to all pet lovers.
Started by three friends, Burges Dandiwala, Zahir Wallani and Neville Mehta this site is a haven for animal lovers.
Without much ado let us welcome Burges, one of the three founders, for a candid tete-a-tete.
Hi Burges. Welcome and thanks for joining us.

Burges: Hi , Sahiba …the pleasures all mine. the more people that get to know about Petnopololis will ensure more animals across India are helped in several ways.

Sahiba: Thats great Burges. Why dont we start with you giving us a brief introduction about yourself and the co-founders.

Burges: Zahir and I run a web design agency since the past three years , Brand Catalyst Media. We were and still are very passionate about what we do. Neville is studying Programming in the US.
All three of us are die hard animal lovers and petnopolis is a fusion of our passion for work and animals.

Sahiba: How did you come up with such an idea of creating a portal for animal lovers and what was your inspiration?

Burges: My dog Omi is the biggest drive and inspiration behind petnopolis. While taking him out for his daily walks and socializing (being a rottwieler i wanted to ensure he turns out friendly) we realized that people who love animals are a community on their own. Love for animals goes beyond religion , colour , race or class.
We felt that starting a platform for these people to meet and communicate would bring like minded individuals together and help all animals and animal lovers alike. Every time we use to try find homes for abandoned animals or even a mate for a friends dog ..nothing would come to pass without atleast 50 phone calls and months of waiting. Thanks to petnopolis the whole process has speeded up by bringing all these like minded beautiful people and even more beautiful animals to gather.
So yeah thats our inspiration.

Sahiba: Well said.
So how has the site been faring uptil now and what has the response been like? Also, has Orkut helped you in anyway to spread word about the site?

Burges: Considering we have not spent anything on marketing , in terms of numbers the site has done fairly well. We have over 3,000 animals lovers registered with us.
However the part that all three of us are proud of is that on a regular basis petnopolis has helped several abandoned animals get homes.
As founders of the site we are very happy that the site is meeting the purpose it was made for. As Users on the site we are enchanted by the kind of people we have got to meet. As i said earlier I think this is a community of the most beautiful people ever. May be not from the out side (that’s why like me many have our dog’s picture instead , he does look better) but definitely as human beings. As humanitarians.
As for the second part of your question , we did not want to use orkut to spread the word as we felt it would go against Orkut’s terms and conditions. How ever members on the site have used various platforms including Orkut to spread the word.

Sahiba: You said that pet lovers are some of the most beautiful people on this planet. There are many people who keep pets only as a status symbol. And thanks to Paris Hilton that trend is on the rise. For such people what good is a site like this and also how do you feel of people who just have pets because “it’s the in thing”?

Burges: I completely agree with you about people who keep pets just as a status symbol or even worse as an in thing .
Thats why through out our converstaion i stressed on ANIMAL LOVERS and not pet owners.
The problem is that these people need to get “educated” about animals. They need to know the difference between an animal and something thats just a fashion or status symbol.
However , why a person keeps an animal is not as important as how he or she keeps them.
For such people this site can be a place where they could get the right kind of knowledge, but personally i think unless they love the animal no amount of knowledege can change their behavior towards animals.
Petnopolis is not to change people , just bring the right ones together. In the end its always the people that can make the difference.

Sahiba: Wish more people understood that.
Now apart from being a portal for pet lovers to meet, discuss and solve one anothers problems it also helps in finding a home for abandoned animals. how has that picked up and so far? And is there any other motive the site is satisfying?

Burges: We have an Adoptions section on the site to help find homes of the animals. However unfortunately a lot of times we find people trying to sell dogs within the adoptions section. Yet through other features such as Private Messaging the users help each other to get homes for these animals.
Infact through the private messaging people sitting as far as london have helped get a home for an abandoned dog in Banglore. Because of the sheer number and geographic diversity things always move faster through the site.
The other two interesting sections on the site are Dr.Pet where various questions are answered by a panel of doctors. And the other being an automated search for a mate for the pet. Both these are useful in aiding the user’s petlife.

Sahiba: Thats great.
Now among all animals which are your favourites? And tell us something about Omar.

Burges: My favorite question :)!
My favorite animal is definitely the horse ! In fact i use to be scared of dogs, its only after being close to horses that i could over come my fear of dogs.
Omar was my first and most favorite horse. I dont think i have been able to bond with my dog the way i had bonded with Omar. People always said that he was a dog by heart , very loving , never hurt a soul , never bit or intentionally kicked. Infact once when i had lost my balance he actually stopped and ensured i dint fall.Never had to tie him , would always be around me when i wasn’t riding him.
Unfortunately i lost him to an epidemic of brain fever that had broken out. Till date i have never come across any horse with even remotely similar characteristics.

Sahiba: Well lets say then that you have been very lucky to have had Omar.
Finally is there anything you would like to say to all those who think animals are inferior to them?

Burges: If being Inferioir or Superior were to be decided according to intelligence and mental ability then i have to agree with them that animals are inferioir. How ever if superiority should be decided not by mental ability but by use of the ability , or simply by just actions then i think theres a lot we have to learn from animals.
For all those who think animals are inferior to humans as a species i completely agree , but i also feel that its our responsibility as “superior” beings to help these animals in what ever way we can.
I learnt this from my dog OMI. He believes himself to be superior than humans how ever i have never caught him ill treating or committing any act of cruelty on them;).
So ill conclude this with yeah we are superior to animals but should be responsible towards them.

Sahiba: Well Burges, it was a pleasure having you here and thank you so much for the interview. We wish you all the best with Petnopolis.com. May it grow by multitudes and may more animals benefit from your act of benevolence.
I will sign off now by quoting something which caught my eye on your profile which i must share with everyone.
My goal in life is to try and be as good a person my dog already thinks I am . I think if i achieve that ill be probably be compared to the likes of a saint

Burges: thank you Sahiba it was great talking to you.