Our Indian corporations always come out with out of the box ideas for our four legged friends. And the Delhi municipal corporation is way ahead than any other corporation in India. After all they are running the capital of India.
After two years of spreadingl misleading and incomplete information about canine rabies by putting rabies awareness boards in every nook and corner of East Delhi, which only created fear and hatred in the minds of the people against dogs they have once again come out with yet another outrageous, obnoxious and mindless solution.
This time they have decided to make dog shelters and put all the strays in that. They say they are doing it for the time being because the population of dogs has increased very much.
The mindless decision has been taken by the municipal councillors of east Delhi constituency.
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Let's see what they have decided for the man's best friend:
1 Shelter homes will be built for dogs with two separate sections. One for male dogs and another for female dogs. And they would be put in shelters after being sterilized.
Sterilization was already painful for the dogs and is quite inhuman as it takes away their natural right of procreation. And to add to it they would be dumped in shelters away from their natural habitat. Shelters are places where animals easily catch infection. They are sad places and no animal is happy there let alone the man's best friend. .
2 Currently the corporation is spending a huge sum of money on anti rabies vaccination on humans who are being bitten by stray dogs. Now once there would be no dogs on streets so no dog bite and hence all the money will be saved and will be used for the dogs in the shelter.
But what if the east Delhi man is bitten by a dog in South Delhi or Ghaziabad or Jaipur? Won't he require vaccination? And how will the corporation stop the incoming of dogs from other areas? Will the corporation keep sending vans to catch the dogs on a daily basis or weekly basis? Wouldn't that make a hole in the pocket of the corporation?
3 They will install feeding stations where people will put food for dogs and then the food will be picked up by the corporation or the NGO and taken to the shelters.
Well if this is the plan for food for dogs then within a months time all dogs will die of starvation.
4 Once the dogs on the streets are gone then there will be no problem of cleanliness.
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation is finding dogs a dirt and filth which once dumped in shleters will make the constituency number one in the race of cleanliness. This clearly shows their negative and apathetic attitude towards dogs. And then once dogs are gone who will kill the rodents? Wouldn't the population of rats just multiply? How will then rats help in making the city clean?
4 Make stricter laws for the dog owners.
Now stricter laws will only lead to dog abandonment by owners and no pet keeping.
Now let's see what are the other faults in the decision:
1 The decision is against the order of the supreme court which clearly says that relocation of dogs is not permissable. They can only be sterilized. The Councillors have taken a decision which is illegal.
2 India is one country therefore the law of the land applies equally to all states and to all corporations. No corporation in India is above law. Today the East Delhi Municipal Corporation will remove the dogs and put them in shelter. Tomorrow South Delhi corporation will do the same and the chain will follow. Does India have so much land? There is hardly any space for humans from where will they find so much land for dogs?
India will be the only country in the world having a dog sanctuary. Nothing can be more stupid and absurd than this.
3 The councillors who took the decision do they have any knowledge about dogs, dog behaviour and rabies? Has anyone kept Indian dog as pet? Is any of them a caregiver? Do they know how difficult it is to feed a dog and to take care of him. With how much pain the caregivers of India have been able to sustain the stray dogs against all odds? Especially when the politicians and the policy makers come out with such anti dog policies?
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation has only come out with obnoxious, mindless and anti dog campaigns.
Earlier it was incomplete and misleading rabies awareness posters and this time it is illegal decision of making shelters.
What the councillors may not know is that all dog bites do not require anti rabies vaccination. Only a bite of rabid dog requires vaccination. And a rabid dog may be one in thousand. And if the dogs are regularly vaccinated then there are negligible chances of getting infected by rabies.
What the Councillors could have done:
1 Bite by a normal and healthy dog does not require anti rabies vaccination. Hence there is a need to create rabies awareness programmes in every colony, schools and colleges.
2 Take the help of caregivers in getting all the dogs sterilized. Without people's participation and the help of the caregivers it is impossible to get success in the ABC programme. Open more sterilizatiion centres and bring direct collaboration between the RWAs / Caregivers and the sterilization centre of their area.
3 Dogs never bite without a reason. People all the time provoke them. If the attitude of the councillors is such then one can well imagine how the attitude of common man of India must be towsrds dogs. This needs a change.
4 The councillors themselves should adopt a dog. They should become a role model so that others in East Delhi may also follow them. They got to work on measures which encourages people to adopt dogs and not make rules and regulations which discourages people from pet keeping. We have witnessed how a strict pet registration policy made by the Ghaziabad municipal corporation eventually led to more hatred and tintolerance towards dogs and dog feeders in their area.
5 What these policy makers fail to understand is that there is an ecological balance which gets disturbed once we try to remove a life from the ecosystem. Dogs and cats are community animals and there is a reason why they are co existing with us.
It is time now for the Animal Welfsre Board of India to take strict measures and discourage municipalities across India to make any policies related to animals. These people are not competent to make policies.
Dogs are not chairs and tables which can be bought, sold and then discarded. While the municipality can make policies on chairs and tables it is not competent to make policies on dogs which happens to be a life.
The councillors who have taken the decision to relocate the dogs mostly belong to the same party which in the year 2001 came out with the Dog Rules and they are at present running the central government. The rule clearly mentions sterilization as the only means to control stray dog population. By making such absurd policy they have only humiliated and brought shame to their predecessors. And unnecessarily created chaos in the society. This will only add to the Dog-man and Man-man conflict which is already risen in the capital.
Recently in many states the government has favoured and built huge shelters for cows. Cow is a revered animal of India. Hindus mostly respect it and consider it their mother.
This is the situation of some of the cow shelters in India:
Well! Shelters are no answer for any animal in a country like India. If this is the situation of cow shelters then one can well imagine what kind of shelters we will have for dogs?
The truth is the corporations all over India have failed in delivering and implementing the ABC programme in a scientific, systematic and rational.manner.
And they are still doing the same by coming out with more unfeasible and mindless solutions.
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