Kerala’s State government is seeking the Supreme Court’s permission to cull aggressive and rabies-infected stray dogs. 

Here’s why this won’t work.

Kerala, the southern state with the highest literacy rate waiting for a nod from the SC to mass-murder street animals, or “free-roaming dogs”, is highly unethical, mundane, and morally wrong.

There are ample reports regarding human deaths that’s interlinked with rabies, or, to be more direct, street dogs. However, contrary to this, there isn’t even an estimate for the total number or street dogs that are killed each year in India.

Why? Because how will you count the times a canine has been murdered in a nation where the people consider themselves superior, and not equal to other life forms, so much so as to massacre them each passing year.

Imagine, at this very moment, a single file holding the fate and destiny of countless street animals, sits on a table in the SC, waiting for a green light.

Even if mass culling in a few areas is granted, this is not a solution. It is simply because when strays are terminated and removed from one area, strays from other areas mobilise and take up that space. In fact, animal psychology clearly says that a fearful dog in a new area, who is also unsettled, is much likely to attack as defense rather than a dog that’s already well adjusted in that area.

Another point to be questioned is, how are these “rabies-infected” animals being identified in the first place? A rabies infected dog is photophobic and hydrophobic, and often go into hiding. These “extermination drives” hence will be killing healthy animals. 

What’s even more upsetting is that it doesn’t take a genius to understand this. The common man can easily put together two and two and realise how mass culling of street dogs isn’t the solution. Sterilisation and vaccination are the only ways to reduce the spread of rabies, just take Chennai’s example. 

We will be mailing a physical letter with the signatures collected through this petition to the state government of Kerala and the Supreme Court, as well as the lawyers and the judge involved in this case to request them to reject the approval, and make adequate amends. 

Save our dogs before it’s too late.