Monday Musings: The canines have it…

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By  Amitabh Srivastava, Edited By Adam Rizvi, The India Observer, TIO: Exactly 90 years after George Orwell’s Animal Farm made people rethink their value system, India seems so obsessed with canines that it defies reason or logic.

This week, newspapers across India carried Page 1 headlines about a matter that, under normal circumstances, would not deserve even an inside column. But since the Supreme Court of India was forced to amend its earlier judgment regarding the treatment of stray dogs, television channels and print media thought it fit to make it their lead story.

It all began when the Supreme Court ordered that stray dogs be locked up in shelters as cases of dog bites were rising, with children and seniors being the main victims. Moved by the plight of these vulnerable sections of society, a three-judge bench of the Court ruled that stray dogs had no business roaming around freely and attacking human beings.

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The killing of stray dogs had, in fact, been banned as far back as the 1980s, when PETA filed a petition arguing that dog catchers were unable to capture the truly ferocious ones, and instead the weak and vulnerable dogs were being taken away. The Court had then ordered that, rather than killing them, dog-catching squads should sterilise the animals to keep their population in check. But feedback from various states has shown that this policy has been a total failure. While staff members have been drawing salaries and enjoying timely annual increments, the canine population has only increased.

Given this background, the SC bench ordered that until such time as all stray dogs can be sterilised, they must be sent to shelter homes and removed from residential colonies.

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Animal lovers across the country — including Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and his estranged aunt, former BJP minister Maneka Gandhi — came together on this issue of “national security” and condemned the SC decision as unkind.

Within days of the protest, the Supreme Court intervened again and set up another bench to take a fresh decision involving lakhs of animals known both for their loyalty and their bites. That the rabies vaccine is in short supply in the country is also common knowledge, but that is neither the concern of the media nor of their Lordships.

Within 15 days of its earlier devastating judgment, another Supreme Court bench reversed the order. It ruled that dogs would not be kept in shelters but instead returned to their original habitats after being sterilised. The exception was made for ferocious dogs, who are to be kept in shelters compulsorily (poor chaps).

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Even as the debate and brainstorming of the intelligentsia over this “national calamity” was underway, a young female police officer in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, lost her life while travelling on her scooter. She crashed while trying to save a stray dog that darted in front of her. But her parents did not have the means to approach the Supreme Court for compensation. Nor had she checked whether the stray dog was sterilised or ferocious.

So, while the nation is delighted to see the Gandhi family united once again — something they could not achieve on issues of saving the Constitution and democratic values since 2014 — there are shades of saffron that remain unhappy.

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Some are arguing that this is selective kindness towards dogs. Why this discrimination between stray dogs and stray cows? Let those advocating freedom for strays also open their homes to cows, which has always been a very sensitive issue for Modi and RSS supporters.

As one senior advocate, now working with an NGO, put it:
“I know how difficult it is to support cows. They need good and fresh grass and fodder, daily bathing, and at least one walk a day so that they remain in good and healthy condition.”

But, as usual, some leaders have joined the chorus, arguing that feeding dogs is part of Indian culture and the government cannot take away the people’s basic rights by removing strays. Agreeing with this reasoning, the Court issued orders that municipal bodies across the country must construct separate areas where dogs can be fed, since they cannot be fed on roadsides.

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That money could have been spent on improving roads, which have crumbled under heavy downpours in Delhi and elsewhere in the country, or on strengthening the bridges that are collapsing within days or months of their inauguration.

But only if…

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Curated by Humra Kidwai

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