STRAY DOGS AND ANIMAL LOVERS – NOW A NATIONAL DEBATE IN INDIA – By N.S.Venkataraman
There are reported to be well over one million stray dogs ( dogs without owners ) loitering on the streets and platforms in almost all villages , towns and cities in India. As the dogs give birth to four to five pups at a time, the population of stray dogs are now increasing at alarming rate. Several cases of children and passers by being bitten by stray dogs have been reported, which sometimes become fatal. In such circumstances, concerns have been expressed by people all over India and demanding that this problem should be solved once for all.
These stray dogs are not starving, as they are being fed by animal lovers who either genuinely love the stray dogs or expect that they would be blessed due to this “charity”. In any case, the ground reality is that the stray dogs population has become a national issue .
One is not sure whether stray dogs are allowed to loiter on streets and platforms in any other country in the world or to such an extent as it is happening in India.
Supreme court of India has taken up the issue and has given a verdict that stray dogs should be caught and housed in shelters and taken care of there by civic bodies. The animal lovers have opposed this verdict and conducted protest march and has appealed to the Supreme Court to reconsider this verdict. Supreme court has agreed to review the decision and last word is yet to be said on the matter.
The views of the animal lovers seem to be that housing the dogs in the shelters would amount to curbing free movement for the dogs and curtailing their liberty to live in the way they want. Animal lovers argue that stray dogs are as much children of God as the humans are and humans have no particular right over the stray dogs. These are such sort of academic views and is now a subject of feverish discussion in India .
The ground reality is that the local administration in the country in various villages, towns and cities have ignored this problem so far and have failed in their responsibility to protect the safety of citizens , who are sometimes injured by the stray dogs , cause traffic hazards by stray dogs by criss crossing on the roads and also affecting public hygiene . The local administration has allowed this problem to become an issue of monstrous proportion.
The next question naturally arises as to whether the animal lovers who fight for the cause of the stray dogs are really one hundred percent animal lovers. The fact is that most of these animal lovers kill goat, chicks , fish , cows , pig , deer etc. and relish eating them and they are non vegetarians. In other words , their love for stray dogs are very selective. At best, they can be called as stray dog lovers and not animal lovers.
In any case, the consensus view in the country appears to be that the stray dogs should not be harmed or killed but have to be protected in a way that they would not become a public nuisance ,as it is now.
A suggestion has been made that while large number of people want stray dogs to be removed from the streets, why not the stray dog lovers take responsibility to take care of the stray dogs by adopting them as pet animals and keep them in their custody, and thus removing their status as stray dogs. Interestingly, the stray dog lovers do not seem to have reacted to this suggestion so far.
