On Monday evening a very unfortunate incident took place. A child who was barely one year old was mauled by a stray dog in Lotus Boulevard, a residential complex in Noida sector 100, Uttar Pradesh. The child succumbed to his injuries tuesday morning. Nothing can be more shameful and disturbing than this. The child's parents were construction workers who were hired for constructing a road inside the complex.
According to the Assistant Commissioner of Police Rajneesh Verma, a stray dog came to the society from outside through the society gate and attacked the child.
The dog who attacked the child came from outside but as soon as the news of the death of the child came hell broke lose on all the dogs both staying inside and outside the complex. All stray dogs and the caregivers were seen with hatred. And then around 100 residents came together to protest and demanded action from the Noida authority ( Municipal corporation of Noida). In a country like India in such a scenario law then takes a backseat
The action was obvious the Noida authority took all the stray dogs away both from inside and outside the complex. At the moment not a single dog is left in the complex. All have been picked and taken. There were only 10 dogs in the complex amongst a human family of 500 living there. So one can imagine the kind of hatred and fear people have for dogs. As there were no cctv cameras so no one knows exactly what happened. That's the sad situation across the whole of India. Dogs are seen as something wild and ferocious. People and young children just don't know how to react to a dog approaching them. They already assume that he is coming to bite them. And to make matters worse for the dogs of Noida the authorities have promised the residents that more dogs would be picked up if the residents feel threatened by dogs. Kindly read the link below to see what kind of fear has been inculcated in the minds of young children and adults for dogs.
What happened is indeed unfortunate but what happened after that.......is that justified?
On 6th October 2022 a rabies vaccination drive for stray dogs living in Lotus Boulevard was organized by Gaurav a free Lancer in animal welfare in collaboration with CGS, Gurgaon. The three caregivers Chandani, Shweta and Shilpi who live in the complex got the dogs vaccinated. These young women are earthly people and not from planet Mars. They too have families and kids. But they feed the dogs of the complex and regularly get them.vaccinated unlike the majority who are scared of dogs and hate them. According to Gaurav who is an outsider the dogs of the complex were very friendly and harmless. To watch the vaccination drive kindly go on the link below:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj3dOHuyBqH/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Anyhow today these ladies and all the dogs are seen with hatred as if the child died because of them. This is just not true. A man murders, steals or kidnaps then do we start punishing all men and hating them all? And before passing judgement even a criminal is given a chance to explain his wrong behaviour.
Well dogs are not one bit like men. They neither murder, kidnap or steal. They are triggered by our wrong behaviour. What provoked the dog to maul the child we know not but why was the one year old child in an open area in the construction site? Anything could have happened to the child. Aren't the residents equally guilty? Shouldn't they have provided a room for the child as his parents were both working on the construction site?
Noida and many parts of India have become dog haters. They assume that dogs are rabid and will attack their children and elderly. The Municipal corporations pan India have done nothing to sensitize people towards dogs and their behaviour.
What Noida authority did by picking up the dogs illegally ( as most of them were sterilized) was a policy of appeasement and not justice.
In recent days many incidents of pet dogs attacking and biting the children and adults have come in news in various cities of Uttar Pradesh and instead of finding out the reasons of such hostility in dogs the corporations banned those breeds. Not thinking even once of the negative repercussions it will have on pet dogs and its owners. For many pet owners dogs are a part of family. Thankfully the corporation after intervention from the animal welfare bodies lifted the ban and instead imposed severe fines and rigid guidelines on pet ownership.
The dog which mauled the baby came from outside. He did not belong to the complex. So why were the dogs living in the premises punished? What crime did they commit that they had to be removed from their home?
The Noida authority has set up a wrong precedent which as per current laws is illegal. They cannot pick up a sterilized dogs and as per the caregivers most of the dogs of the complex were sterilized.
The uncontrolled dog population in Noida and other parts of India are the failure of municipal corporations. They have implemented the ABC program in the most secretive, unsystamatic and complaint centric manner. There has been no peoples participation and no awareness.
Also they never spoke of prevention of canine rabies. The corporations pan India have only spoken of dog bite and scratch leading to rabies in human.
Never in the knowledge of any caregiver of Noida has the Noida Municipal Corporation carried out rabies vaccination drive for stray dogs in residential area.
Why the rabies vaccination drive has never taken place in Noida or any other part of India including Delhi which is the capital of India?
Most of the television channels are no less guilty.
There has been reports of dogs being killed mercilessly almost everyday by we humans but the media has chosen to be quiet. Why?
Rabies Vaccination drives done recently by the caregivers with the help of CGS, Gurgaon, Rakshan trust, SGACC and Dr Anoop Pandey in Delhi NCR from 2nd Oct 2022 to 9 Oct 2022 was completely ignored by the Indian television. Why? Isn't that the only ethical and legal way to make India Canine rabies free? WHO and all international bodies involved in making the world canine rabies free talk only of dog vaccination.
But unfortunately our municuipal corporations and the govt veterinarians are singing just the opposite tune. Their focus is all on human cure from being infected by canine rabies.
Don't they say prevention is better than cure? Well our munucipal corporations think the other way round.
If things continue the way they are and no changes are brought in the implementation of the ABC program then very soon India will become a canine free country.
Pet keeping is just not encouraged, caregivers are being tortured and stray dogs are seen as enemies and hence are killed, poisoned, beaten,......
In days to come if India becomes a canine free country, which has a very high possibility the people responsible for it will be:
1 The Govt of India who till date has not amended the 62 year old animal law. And by all likelihood it seems they lack the will to do so.
2 The municipal corporations who have been responsible for uncontrolled growth of stray dog population and in portraying the Indian dog as rabid and dangerous.
3 Majority of the Indian television who ran debates after debates on dog biting and attacking children but never bothered to apprise the citizens of India about dog behaviour, the ABC program and how we can help create a rabies free nation by getting all our canines vaccinated.
Shame on the Indian system which has made a mockery of the ABC program and instead of accepting their folly and rectifying it, it is still blaming the mute and helpless dogs of India.
This is a video which shows how a pack of stray dogs in Saudhi Arabia saved the life of a baby who was thrown by her family in the garbage
https://youtube.com/shorts/JSnCQ1rn7SU?feature=share