16 year old makes difference in overpopulation problem

June 25, 2008

How refreshing!

Ayna Agarwal, 16, founded Stop Animal Overpopulation Together Globally.

Ayna Agarwal will never forget the day she was visiting her family in New Delhi, India and she saw a helpless dog in the street. It was like so many she had seen there with infections, disease and missing paws. But, it was the last one she wanted to see without doing something about it.

Ayna started SPOT, or Stop Animal Overpopulation Together Globally, to spay and neuter cats and dogs worldwide, specifically in third-world countries. She sits on the board of The Humane Society’s youth division, Humane Teen, where she represents her passion for animal population control with other young people who are concerned with different issues like animal cruelty and fighting fur production. Trying to impart the issues she discusses there with others in her hometown of Edison, New Jersey, Ayna is now running a summer camp called Paws and Claws to educate kids in grades 3-5 about animal welfare and protection.

At 16, Ayna knows exactly what she wants to be when she grows up — a veterinarian and animal activist. She says she would like to eventually “speak for the animals because they can’t speak for themselves.”

What would you like to ask Anya? Submit your questions as comments below, or send in a question on video to iReport.com. Then be sure to look for your questions during the CNN.com Live interview Friday, June 27, at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Filed under: Under 20 • Worldwide reach Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight - Albert Schweitzer http://www.myspace.com/fortheanimals7