Tehelka: STREET SLAUGHTER: BANGALORE VS DOG

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Link: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main28.asp?

filename=Cr240307Bangalore_vs.asp

 

STREET SLAUGHTER

 

BANGALORE VS DOG

 

Animal lovers are aghast as municipal authorities order a cull of

the city's strays. M. Radhika tracks the debate

 

Would you say the same thing if your child was killed by dogs? " an

agitated bystander asked animal lovers protesting Bangalore's drive

to exterminate its strays. This is a divided city these days, with

battlelines drawn between those who approve the cull and those who

find it reprehensible. The city's media is siding with those who

want stray dogs killed, so much so that mere dog bites are now being

reported as if they were crime stories. As the debate rages on, the

questions and counter-questions fly thick and fast. Is one anti-

people if one opposes killing stray animals? Is there a mob

psychology behind the drive? Who is more important: kids or dogs?

 

It all began when a pack of feral dogs killed four-year-old

Manjunath near the Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) staff

quarters. A month-and-a-half earlier, Sridevi, a toddler who was

playing near a construction site on the outskirts of the city, was

also killed by stray dogs. The city municipal body, the Bhruhat

Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), declared war and ordered that

the strays be exterminated. Stray dogs are now being hauled up in

the hundreds by dogcatchers that the BBMP has hired from elsewhere,

including Kerala.

 

" I am appalled at the way the children were mauled to death, and I

am all for killing ferocious animals, but this is madness, " says

Jeremy D'Souza who has been feeding the dogs of his locality for the

last 15 years. On March 9, he followed a dog-catching van to rescue

dogs from his neighbourhood. He says he was horrified by the

treatment the dogs were put through. " I am no ngo man, " he

says. " But this is inhuman – to say all dogs should be eradicated

because some of them killed two children. "

 

Those who oppose the cull point out that both the dog attack deaths

happened in areas not covered by the city's Animal Birth Control

(abc) programme, since ngos that perform abc operations to confine

the dog population are not allowed to work beyond the corporation

limits. The construction site where Sridevi was killed is on the

outskirts of the city, and the BEML Layout area where Manjunath was

killed is outside the BBMP's jurisdiction. There was also no control

over garbage disposal in either place. The BEML Layout area has

about 125 acres of open space behind it — a handy garbage dump, not

just for the meat stalls near the Layout, but also for the residents

who live in nearby localities.

 

" Let us understand that Bangalore has open access to animals from

everywhere. Its peripheral areas are rural in nature where dogs are

wild. They kill rats, rabbits and rodents in open fields, " D'Souza

says. " When more domesticated city dogs are removed, the wild ones

tend to occupy that space and behave that way too. " The strays that

killed Sridevi are said to have migrated from elsewhere.

 

Some animal welfare ngos are under scanner at the moment, as it is

suspected that they have misused funds meant for abc operations.

Dilip Bafna, a trustee of the Animal Rights Fund, debunks these

allegations. " There will always be suspicion, especially when you

touch public money. We are all accountable to the Income Tax

authorities. Let them show proof if they have problems with us. Why

kill dogs? "

 

Basavanna, an engineer, has no sympathy for these groups. " They are

all hypocrites — the Maneka Gandhi brigade. We've had plenty of dog

bites, these ngos are not bothered, " he says.

 

His opinion is in stark contrast to that of residents from

Vijayanagar and the rpc Layout areas. Cutting across religious

affiliations, residents here feed strays, bathe and put collars on

them, and get them vaccinated. A swamiji also visits the area

regularly to feed them.

 

Also lost in the media frenzy is the story of how dogs helped save a

newborn's life in the forests of Devarayanadurga in Tumkur on March

9. An unwed mother had abandoned her child in the forests, but a

pack of dogs, which had followed her, stood guard over the infant

all night to prevent any attack by other animals. The next morning,

a passerby found the child and, as it chanced, took the baby to the

same woman, who wept with joy having spent the night in guilt.

 

Mar 24 , 2007