IT Minister K.T Rama Rao unveiled the Petfolk’s first pet grooming vehicle on Monday. The Pioneer connects with its founder who shares more insights about the same.
Amartya Smaran
Laxmikanth Puducherri who founded the Petfolk app launched the company’s first-ever pet grooming vehicles in the presence of IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao at T-Hub on Monday. The app was made available to the public eight months ago with the intention to provide a one-stop solution for all pet needs and information.
Amidst his busy schedule, the founder took some time off and discussed the idea behind launching grooming vehicles in the city and dropped in some advice for pet parents at the end of the interview.
“We’ve launched the Petfolk grooming vehicles on Monday. It’s more like an ecosystem of pets. We have grooming as a section where people can get their pets groomed with the state of the art technology. We have the best equipped vans that are available in India,” enthused Laxmikanth just a few hours prior to the launch.
Most people aren’t aware that pets too need insurance services like us humans. Giving us more information about it, he said, “We have collaborated with the insurance people, so that pet parents can understand the dos and donts about the wellbeing of their pets. It is a total pet ecosystem that is on the move. We have trained groomers who’ll be working on the pets.”
In Hyderabad, there are some vans that are already in existence. Not blaming anyone, Laxmikanth shared that some of the vans lack ventilation and as a result, pets get suffocated. “To tackle this problem, we’ve equipped the vans with proper air conditioning systems. And the grooming tables are designed to provide comfort to the pets. We refrain from using the same towels to wipe the pets because we don’t want the other pets to catch an infection. After the grooming session, we will be sanitising the entire van. We’re aiming to launch 400 vehicles all over India in 60 cities. Our journey has just begun. We’re starting with two vehicles today and in another two days, we’ll be launching two more in Hyderabad. We’re also planning to expand our services in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi,” assured the entrepreneur.
There are a lot of people who don’t give pets the right kind of treatment. Some of them look at pets like cute toys, which is not right. Wanting a pet is one thing but taking care of them is the biggest challenge. We, humans, are capable enough to take care of ourselves and it’s a different story with home pets. They must be treated with utmost care. A good number of people go out of their way to get a pet just because they look adorable. It surely makes for a good Instagram picture but what’s the point? T-Hub member Laxmikanth is totally against buying and selling of pets. “We don’t encourage the idea of selling pets. That is the cruellest part. People who do that have no etiquette whatsoever and they do that for making a profit out of it. I suggest people approach a proper breeder or known people to get a pet. We also encourage people to have more Indie pets as opposed to fancy pets,” shared Laxmikanth.
The climatic conditions that we live in don’t go well with all kinds of breeds. There are certain breeds that fall prey to harsh conditions. More than anything, the atmosphere that we live in brings a lot of distress to specific breeds. “Everyone wants to keep a Husky but that particular breed is not for hot and tropical places like Hyderabad and other cities. I’ve seen a lot of Huskies face problems because of the climatic conditions. We have a dedicated Petfolk ambulance that provides services for free. We get a lot of requests for pet blood. This is because those breeds are not made for our weather and they fall sick,” vented the businessman.
Emphasising the concept of treating pets like family, he ended, “People need to treat their pets like a family member and not as a showpiece. Pets don’t ask for anything except love. What they need is love and they will give you unconditional love in return. With a pet at home, all your stress is gone.”
