IT entrepreneur Rakesh Shukla had never owned a pet growing up. <br /><br />He only got his very first dog aged 38. <br /><br />Now, ten years later, he's adopted more than 850. <br /><br />He began by taking strays off the streets to his home in Bengaluru in southern India's Karnataka state.<br /><br />After protests from his wife, he moved the dogs to his office but as the numbers of animals grew, he purchased some land outside the city and built a farm with his own money to house all the dogs. <br /><br />Now, he runs an organisation called "Voice of Stray Dogs" (VOSD) to rescue and rehabilitate injured and abandoned dogs. <br /><br />Rakesh lives at the farm and looks after the animals himself with a few employees. <br /><br />Meanwhile, he also runs his IT business in Bangalore remotely.<br /><br />However, as there's no connection on the farm, he has to park a van on the main road some 6 kilometres away to pick up a phone signal and access the internet. <br /><br />Rakesh spends six to eight hours per day inside the vehicle before returning to the care for his growing pack of dogs. <br /><br />The unusual working conditions are essential for now as Rakesh pays for the upkeep of the farm and its many canine residents mostly from his own pocket.
