The last 2 weeks have brought the stray dog problem, affecting Bangalore and urban Indian cities as a whole, to the lime light, albeit for the wrong reasons...
(Photo courtesy: BBC)
2 kids were killed by strays in Bangalore which caused the Govt to start a 'removal' drive in which around 1000 dogs have being caught.....the problem is, there is no place to keep them .
NGOs have no space left to keep new dogs and hence they are kept locked up without food and water and there have been reports of hungry dogs resorting to cannibalism...
Animal lovers in Bangalore are trying hard to stop but this knee jerk reaction done with an eye on the vote bank cannot be stopped i guess...
Even Mahatma Gandhi has recommended the removal of strays rather than cause problems to humans and making the man's best friend suffer in the process.
Gandhiji says : “The destruction of bodies of tortured creatures being for their own peace cannot be regarded as himsa, or the unavoidable destruction caused for the purpose of protecting ones wards, cannot be regarded as himsa.
Which of the two is better – that 5000 dogs should wander about in semi-starvation living on dirt and excreta and drag on a miserable existence, or that 50 should die and keep the rest in a decent condition?... .”
Source: http://www.karmayog.com/dogs/gandhijiletter.htm
We have to accept the fact that a huge number of stray dogs are there on the streets due to inadequate garbage disposal and slum/street dwellers both of which provide food to the strays.
But killing them wont help in the present scenario...Killing dogs was started by the British in the 19th Century (around 50,000 killed per year) and still there are dogs on the streets...
It’s been well documented and proven repeatedly that Animal birth control (ABC) pgms are the only solution to this problem....
2 kids were killed by strays in Bangalore which caused the Govt to start a 'removal' drive in which around 1000 dogs have being caught.....the problem is, there is no place to keep them .
NGOs have no space left to keep new dogs and hence they are kept locked up without food and water and there have been reports of hungry dogs resorting to cannibalism...
Animal lovers in Bangalore are trying hard to stop but this knee jerk reaction done with an eye on the vote bank cannot be stopped i guess...
Even Mahatma Gandhi has recommended the removal of strays rather than cause problems to humans and making the man's best friend suffer in the process.
Gandhiji says : “The destruction of bodies of tortured creatures being for their own peace cannot be regarded as himsa, or the unavoidable destruction caused for the purpose of protecting ones wards, cannot be regarded as himsa.
Which of the two is better – that 5000 dogs should wander about in semi-starvation living on dirt and excreta and drag on a miserable existence, or that 50 should die and keep the rest in a decent condition?... .”
Source: http://www.karmayog.com/dogs/gandhijiletter.htm
We have to accept the fact that a huge number of stray dogs are there on the streets due to inadequate garbage disposal and slum/street dwellers both of which provide food to the strays.
But killing them wont help in the present scenario...Killing dogs was started by the British in the 19th Century (around 50,000 killed per year) and still there are dogs on the streets...
It’s been well documented and proven repeatedly that Animal birth control (ABC) pgms are the only solution to this problem....
For details on stray dogs visit: http://www.wsdindia.org/FAQs/faqs.htm
So if you are an animal lover who feeds strays in the neighborhood, in spite of your neighbors protests, hats off to you! If you are able to take the next step of getting them sterilized by contacting NGOs lie Bluecross / PFA , the battle will be won one day!
Am myself going to join bluecross as the money i spend will help their ABC pgm and hopefully similar things wont happen in Chennai or Kerala...After all, breeding Great Danes has given me decent money and its only fair to spend some of it for their need cousins on the streets...
4 comments:
Seriously bro, I had problems with those dogs. I almost lost my life once because of a dog. But, I ended up only killing it. I guess, we have to give more importance to humans than to Dogs. Either move them or kill them, doesn't make any difference to me as long as they are not trouble to humans anymore.
i completly agree with you. in fact right now we are trying to get about 20 stray dogs in our localitly sterilized and nuterd. plus we re going to give all the pups to a shelter here, either cupa or karuna, a shelter here in yelahanka. we ve got our colleges support, and the local vet is helping us to. the battle is really convincing the ppl here that this is a better solution than killing the dogs.we re also planning to buy collars for all of them and register them, and spread awareness, at least in our colony. so far we have got yelled at and abused but it just makes us want to do this more.
@ Karteek : yeah i agree you escaped from serious injury that day....but we put them on the streets and we have to move them humanely off the streets in a phased manner...
@ Inkalittle : what you are doing is superb...all the best !
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