Defending Animal Birth Control after a fatal dog attack

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:

 

 

Defending Animal Birth Control after a fatal dog attack

by Poornima Harish

 

None of us are as smart as all of us. This was illustrated

in how the animal welfare organizations of Bangalore handled a recent

fatal dog attack.

Bangalore electrocuted street dogs until 1999, killing about

200 dogs per day, yet still suffered nearly 40 human rabies deaths

per year, plus dog population growth commensurate with the rising

human population.

Finally, in keeping with the Indian national policy adopted in

December 1997, the city opted to stop the killing and instead

support an Animal Birth Control program.

Beginning in October 2000, Banga-lore was divided into three

zones for ABC, to be handled by the Animal Rights Fund, Compassion

Unlimited Plus Action, and the Bangalore SPCA. At about the same

time the Krupa 24-Hour Helpline for Animals was commissioned to

counsel people about animal welfare and the ABC program.

Two years into the program, several anti-animal (and

anti-people) groups mounted a cheap and offensive tirade against ABC.

This proved to be a good learning experience for us. Using the

arguments of the opposition to reinforce our requests for the

resources to do ABC on a larger scale, we increased the pace of dog

sterilization to 3,000 per month.

The meaner, more bitter, and more unreasonable the

allegations against us were, the more credible our efforts appeared

by contrast--because our words were reinforced by tangible action.

The media frenzy over the most recent dog attack offered

another opportunity for the animal welfare community to become

stronger and better organized, and especially to get the

municipality to acknowledge the importance of solid waste management

to prevent congregations of street dogs.

The fatal attack occurred on January 5, 2007 in a part of

Bangalore called Chandra Layout. The victim, a nine-year-old girl

named Sridevi, was killed in broad daylight by a pack of dogs in a

busy residential area.

Street dogs do not have a natural predator/prey relationship

with human children. Bites occur, but unlike in the U.S. and other

nations where dogs tend to be much larger and more territorial,

incidents of dogs attacking and killing children in India are almost

unheard of.

The attack occurred around 8 a.m. when people in the area

were up and about. Although large dogs can quickly inflict fatal

injuries, passers-by should have been able to save the girl from an

attack by ordinary street dogs. We question why no one intervened,

and why the dogs attacked in the first place when there was plenty

for them to eat.

We believe Sridevi began running, stimulating the dogs to

attack as a pack.

We immediately visited the scene, which we at the Animal

Rights Fund had identified as high-risk in 2002, due to casual

disposal of meat scraps. We had identified 1,215 illegal meat shops

and other high-risk areas in 35 wards of south Bangalore alone. We

repeatedly requested the municipality to take strict action against

the offending shops. Unfortunately, nothing was done.

Within the Chandra Layout a vacant lot had become a dump for

the meat waste of illegal butchers. The municipality had not cleared

the lot for many months, leaving it thick with chopped bones. We

photographed the evidence.

Residents we questioned as to why they had done nothing to

control the dumping admitted that they did not want the issue to

become " communal, " meaning that they did not want to incite tensions

between Muslim butchers and their Hindu neighbors.

After Sridevi was killed, the municipality closed some of

the illegal meat shops, but most are again doing business as usual.

After two days of reactive cleaning, the situation reverted to the

former state. Most of the illegal meat shops are again doing

business as usual.

 

The media

 

The media in Bangalore, as elsewhere, includes responsible

and irresponsible sectors. The responsible media took care to ask

for our perspective, and fairly represented our comments. Some of

the media publishing in Indian native languages, however, did not

publish accurate reports, even after being fully informed about how

the meat waste attracted the congregation of dogs who killed Sridevi.

Some newspapers stationed photographers day and night in the

Chandra Layout area, capturing dog movements and giving whatever

color they wanted to the story.

Some residents basked in the media attention. One particular

lawyer gave false complaints and accused us of not responding. The

next night when he complained of dog barks or bites, we got him to

open the locks of his house at 3 a.m., to collect his signed

acknowledgement that we had visited the area and searched for the

alleged troublesome dog.

We smothered Chandra Layout with more customer service than

the residents expected. This effectively stopped the false and

exaggerated allegations.

Meanwhile, screaming headlines brought mayhem to innocent

dogs. Any sight of a dog seemed to bring complaints to the Krupa

24-Hour Helpline. Personal rivalries were reflected in complaints

against neighbors' dogs, and there were hoax calls galore. We had

to respond positively to every call. Often the callers were happy to

have someone to vent their anger on, or to receive help to find

their missing dog, or just to be reassured by a personal answer.

Our staff worked in shifts, with scheduled breaks to keep up

their spirits and energy. Their role was akin to that of the many

call center employees in India who often hear racist slurs from

frustrated people abroad.

Dogs all over Bangalore were killed, most of them non-biters

and totally innocent. All of the dogs in the Chandra Layout were

killed, even those who were previously sterilized and vaccinated.

New dogs immediately moved in, biting more people and livestock. We

warned that if a rabid dog arrived and began biting, the result

would be catastrophic.

We encouraged animal lovers to write to all media,

expressing their anguish. Most of their letters were published. Yet

this was not enough.

The newspapers were full of big articles. The letters were

buried in small print on inside pages. Effectively countering the

big articles required responses from influential people. These

required much more effort to obtain than we anticipated. Many

celebrities and busy people are cranky and come with egotistical

baggage. Some, however, were very sweet, and were prompt to

issue statements in our support.

Our site visit to get first-hand information was followed by

one camera crew who took footage of our visit, distorted it,

complete with obscene voiceovers, broadcast it, then contacted us

and told us that they were " ready for a compromise, " for a fee!

They said that otherwise they would agitate the public to stop our

ABC " business. " We told them to go ahead if they felt that ABC did

not benefit Bangalore.

Animal welfare organizations must understand that the world

will not necessarily recognize our good deeds.

Yet times of intense opposition and media pressure are often

when the best results for animals can be obtained from an apathetic

bureaucracy, if animal advocates keep focused and push for the right

things at the right time.

We asked for the introduction of intradermal administration

of human post-exposure anti-rabies vaccines, regulation of pet

markets, breeder licensing, investigation of which areas might be

at high risk for rabies, and expansion of the ABC program to the

unincorporated outskirts of the city.

Our survey of high risk areas in 2002 proved to be of immense

help in 2007, as we demonstrated that the risk associated with the

illegal meat shops could have been avoided.

During our first bout with anti-animal groups in 2002, we

realized that our opponents were purposely misleading the public

about the local incidence of rabies. This also proved useful in 2007.

Bangalore has an Epidemic Diseases Hospital. People living

in communities outside Bangalore are referred there when local

hospitals are unable to handle a patient, including in rabies cases.

Those patients' deaths are then recorded as Bangalore deaths.

We also discovered that the anti-dog activists counted as

dead people those who were " discharged against medical advice " from

the Isolation Hospital, usually because their families preferred to

have them treated in better facilities. As the Isolation Hospital

relied on clinical diagnosis rather the laboratory tests to define

rabies cases, some of the alleged victims turned out to be suffering

from other conditions with superficially similar symptoms. This

continues today.

We persuaded some city hospitals to change their format for

reporting dog bites, to distinguish between bites from street dogs

and pet dogs. The city hospitals now give modern post-exposure

anti-rabies vaccinations free of cost. Many people who are bitten by

their pet dogs avail themselves of this service. The system of

recording the sources of dog bites still needs to be improved, but a

beginning has been made.

 

Who can help

 

Such work on specific aspects of problems can only be done by

serious organizations whose people make the effort to understand how

every involved agency operates. Highly reactive advocates whose

chief preoccupation is venting their own feelings are more likely to

get in the way than help. Yet there are other contributions that

they can make, appropriate to their abilities.

We strive to welcome whatever anyone is willing to do to

help, and to encourage our colleagues with other organizations to

target the issues that they are best equipped to address. Social

" butterflies, " for example, are often quite effective at

fundraising and public relations.

Even lethargic and lazy organizations can sometimes be of

help, if only by contributing their inert mass to the visible weight

of the pro-animal cause. Aligned with us, we can hope they will

become inspired to be more active.

It is vital for municipalities to fund ABC work, but city officials

do not always understand the need for the work to be done in a

professional manner.

We would have liked Bangalore to follow the Jaipur model of

implementing ABC in target sectors, after a thorough dog census.

Before we received city funding, we were able to focus on specific

areas. We would complete a sterilization and vaccination sweep in

one area before moving on to the next. This was no longer possible

after the terms of city funding required us to attend to complaints

all over south Bangalore.

As we write, Bangalore has expanded. The city which was 220

square kilometers when we started is now 741 square kilometres. We

are looking at more of the same problems. We have to find more

effective solutions.

We might move toward mobile surgery and same-day release,

following the model of Animal Help in Ahmedabad, whose six mobile

units and 28 veterinarians sterilized 45,011 dogs in 2006. This

would require considerably expanding and retraining our veterinary

staff. We don't know yet what our approach will be, but we are

keeping all options open.

In 1999, as a new organization, operating only on private

funding, we rented a dilapidated building that became our animal

hospital, and otherwise developed our program in advance of

receiving public contracts. We learned that public officials like

organizations that seize the initiative. If they think an

organization is capable of handling important projects, they will

come looking for help.

Amid the brouhaha over the fatal dog attack in Bangalore, we

received a request to start an ABC program from Belgaum, located

eight hours from Bangalore.

We recommend that animal welfare groups be prepared to

respond to such opportunities. If experienced personnel get a local

program started, local people can be trained to run it, whereas

local people without experience may stumble, causing public

officials to lose confidence in their approach.

All is not well yet in Bangalore. We are facing an inquiry

panel headed by a man who has written that ABC is an animal welfare

tyranny foisted on the ignorant urban poor. We are also fighting a

court case in which a man who asked three years ago for all

slaughterhouses to be shifted out of Bangalore is now saying that

since the city has not managed to move the slaughterhouses, the dogs

they attract should be killed.

Under pressure from the organized foes of street dogs,

Bangalore municipality on February 2, 2007 called a public hearing on

the dog issue. They expected the anti-dog people to turn out in

force.

In past statements, however, the anti-dog people had linked

their opposition to street dogs to a demand that all dogs be

debarked. ARF, Krupa, CUPA, and Karuna (the new name of the

former Bangalore SPCA) amplified their statements to the dog-loving

public through cell phone text messages and direct calls. This

ensured a turnout the likes of which Bangalore had never seen before

on any animal issue. As many as 1,000 people packed the meeting hall

to speak for dogs, with many others standing outside.

A few days earlier we had joined in a protest against a

scheme to serve eggs to school children for their mid-day meals,

aligned with Akhila Karnataka Prani Daya Sangha, a charity which

promotes cow protection and opposes animal sacrifice. For eight

years the AKPDS left dog protection entirely to us. On February 2,

however, they supported us.

After the crowd left, one of the commissioners asked me,

" Poornima, why were the people so emotional? What is it about dogs,

that these people left their work to be here? "

I told him that it is simple: with animals we get

un-conditional love. Dogs are happy with whatever we give them.

The commissioner, who has two dogs of his own, asked me to

repeat this to four of his officials. He pointed out to them that

while to the officials the dog issue may be just another problem of

civic administration, to us it is a matter of passionate commitment.

 

[Freelance journalist Poornima Harish is among the most

active volunteers for the Animal Rights Fund and Krupa 24-Hour

Helpline for Animals. Contact her c/o Krupa, #6, 1st Main,

Sripuram, Seshadripuram, Bangalore, India 560 020; telephone

91-98801-94757; <info; <www.arfindia.org>.]

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing

original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,

founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the

decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations.

We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]