Stray dogs suffer because they cannot argue in their own defence in a human language

A deficiency stray dogs suffer from, and that have sometimes proved fatal to them, is that they do not speak a human language. Thus, accused of attacking, and killing, a child, they cannot argue that the real offenders were actually pet dogs. Nor can a bitch contend that she had severely bitten a man to stop him from killing, one by one, her puppies by trampling on them. On the other hand, people who seek vicarious satisfaction of their genocidal instinct by demanding the mass slaughter of stray dogs, often present the latter as posing severe threats to humans by spreading rabies, biting vast numbers of people, causing traffic accidents, and otherwise preying on people’s fear psychosis.

An example of how stray dogs’ inability to speak a human language can prove fatal for them is provided by a tragic incident in which a 16-month-old child was killed in New Delhi’s Tughlak Lane area on February 24, 2024.  Claimed to have been found lying grievously injured in the service lane of Prithviraj Road, she was rushed to the Safdarjang Hospital at 5 p.m. where she died at 7.15 p.m.  Spearheaded by the media, the word spread like wildfire that stray dogs had killed her.

What was the basis for such a conclusion? The question is important. According to a press release on the incident by seven leading animal activists, the police, who were informed of the incident at 6.24 p.m., rushed to meet members of the girl’s family at Safdarjang Hospital. The first police officer who reached the hospital reported that none from the family was an eye-witness to the tragedy; nor did he find any eye-witness among the crowd of local residents, onlookers and visitors who were present on the spot.

Nor, according to the press release, is there any visual evidence of the child being attacked. Dhobi Ghat, where the child lived with her extended family, abuts Mr LK Advani’s residence. The spot where the injured child is claimed to have been found is directly within viewing distance of a 24-hour police lookout point inside Mr Advani’s house. It is impossible for his security staff to have neither seen nor heard a child being attacked by a pack of stray dogs. Nor is it possible that such an incident does not feature in the recorded footage of the CCTV cameras present in the area.

The claim that the noise of the attack was drowned by the loud music played in a party in the neighbourhood does not stand. The child was taken to the hospital at 5 p.m. The party was held in the evening. Music was played after 8 p.m.

Nor could stray dogs have killed the child inside the Dhobi Ghat where over 10 families live in a gated community, which stray dogs cannot enter. This implies that the 16-month-old had got out of the compound and reached the spot where she was allegedly found, and which is some 150 metres away from the compound gate. How could she have done it on her own? Also, how is it that she was not stopped and sent home, particularly from the gate where she must have been seen walking out alone?

This implies that the child might have been killed inside the compound. If so, by whom? The press release by animal activists mentions a Pitbull living with the child’s family. Walked daily on a leash by her family members, it was very much present on the day of the incident. Used for breeding and kept mostly chained, it had become unfriendly, a fact confirmed by two incidents in the recent past.

According to the press release, Zee News reporters who had visited the Dhobi Ghat area and met the family to do a video on the incident, had heard a dog barking from one of the houses. Asked, family members denied the presence of a Pitbull. The reporters, however, spotted one being dragged away as they were leaving. The family brusquely told them to quit the premises upon their asking about the dog.

Could it be that the child, left unattended, had got close to the dog which had severely mauled it? There must be a thorough-going search for an answer. Meanwhile, one also needs to ask: how many attacks attributed to stray dogs are actually by them? Since they cannot deny their involvement in a human language, one needs to investigate such incidents most exhaustively and pronounce them guilty only on the basis of incontrovertible evidence. Meanwhile, there has to be a thorough investigation to establish the truth in the present case and in all future cases in which the culpability of stray dogs is alleged.

Before waxing indignant on stray dogs attacking humans, one needs to ponder what humans routinely do to stray dogs, other animals and members of their own species. In the present instance, two dogs, that had nothing do with the child’s death were cruelly killed in its vengeful aftermath.  As Erich Fromm states in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness’, “Man’s history is a record of extraordinary destructiveness and cruelty and human aggression it seems, far surpasses that of that of man’s animal ancestors, and man is in contrast to most animals, a real killer.”

(The author is Consulting Editor, The Pioneer. The views expressed are personal)