ANIMALS IN INDIAN METROPOLISES

[Guest guest]

*http://www.tehelka.com/story_main17.asp?filename=hub040806Fursat_Mein6.asp*

*Save the animals and the metropolises we live in*

 

By *Jane Rankin-Reid*

 

*Jane Rankin-Reid*

As the internal measure of my foreignness steadily decreases with work and

familiar daily domestic and social routines here in Delhi -- and my recent

spate of small but significant firangi style accidents seems to have abated

at last -- I sense I may be at risk of taking life in India for granted.

Still, there's nothing quite like a visit to the local animal shelter to

rock any sane human's comfort zone.

 

I went this morning with a young friend who is a volunteer at Delhi's

Friendicoe Seca Animal Rescue Centre. Located quite near my house, the

shelters' entrance has always intrigued me, with its bunch of elderly

canines lying around the exterior, lifting their tails and rolling their

eyes at visitors and passersby as if greeting old friends. We enter the

sanctuary through a blue door scratched raw by subversive animals trying

desperately to get inside, not out! After feeding a small abandoned monkey

and watching the bizarre distortions of its throat as it stored grapes

there, I stood by -- feeling slightly sick and useless -- chatting with the

most handsome dogs in the room, while my friend bravely cleaned animal

cages.

 

*Animal welfare in India is always a contentious subject, with many

disputing the priorities of care. What about the humans they wail, as have I

in earlier columns, expressing despair over the confrontational strategies

and aggressive boasts of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

in particular. The idea of two Indian animal rights activist dressed as

bears dogging Prince Charles' visit here last week would be faintly

ridiculous were it not for the determination with which PETA continues its

unrelenting and vociferous campaign against animal abuses, rather than (I

suspect) for animal care. The 'bears' were protesting Buckingham Palace's

use of Canadian bearskins for its Guards' emblematic hats, hoping, (we

assume) that their unusual attire in India would capture international

media's attention. Confronted at a recent UK event, the Prince turned to one

of the bears saying, 'It just wouldn't be the same without you!' Sad, that

PETA's publicly raised resources were directed at this oddly specific

initiative in India at the expense of other more pertinent local issues.

After all, the Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall are well known animal

lovers and much more mileage could have been achieved if PETA had focused on

animal welfare issues relevant in the Indian context for the duration of the

royals' visit here.*