Recent incidents of animal cruelty in Chennai and Hyderabad have once again highlighted the fact that even as there are laws to protect animals, they are poorly implemented. The need of the hour is to amend these laws
Two recent incidents — a well-educated man in Delhi brutally trampling a dog to death by running his car over it and Chennai doctors flinging a puppy from the fifth floor of a building and video-graphing the fall — has shocked the nation and animal lovers.
No sooner, there was yet another incident in Hyderabad, where a group of boys burnt three puppies alive. The social media and newspapers, for a break, gave importance to this crucial issue of perverted behaviour of our educated elites and brought into focus the changing times and human character. Mercifully, animal lovers forced the police to take cognisance and the Press must be given the credit for this.
Erratic and irrational cruel human behaviour against animals is increasingly being exhibited by the affluent and educated people. This has opened debates among the people about where the affluent minds are heading. Are they regressing back towards the stone age from where the man evolvedIJ
The Chennai puppy miraculously survived but with fractures and what is heart rendering is the fact that it was wagging its tail even in great pain and showing affection when someone went near it. India is considered to be a leader in showering respect, compassion and love to animals.
People all over the world have decimated the wildlife long ago during the 18th and 19th century, but in India, we have a varied and rich wildlife due to the importance our ancestors attached to them.
However, today, moral values have been steadily deteriorating among our educated class. Brutal atrocities against animals by educated people are perpetrating on animals. This must be a cause of concern for the social scientists and psychiatrists.
The behaviour of Chennai puppy reminds us of best words spoken by famous footballer Ben Williams about dogs, “There is no psychiatrist in the word like a puppy licking your face”. Dogs are domesticated descendents of wolves and most amazing, intelligent and fascinating creatures who give unconditional love to human beings.
Who can forget about the story of a golden retriever named Daisy who was the guide dog for James Crane, a blind worker at the World Trade Center in New York. On the day of the 9/11 attack, James was 20 floors above where the jetliner hit and he knew that he wouldn’t make it, but he sent Daisy away. Daisy saved more than 800 lives running from one floor to other and ultimately died while rescuing people.
While several laws protecting animals do exist, and many people are fighting for animal rights, but these lack teeth or are poorly executed. This incident of killing of a stray dog and the story of the Chennai puppy must awaken animal lovers, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as well as the department of veterinary science to pull up their shocks and take the issue of stray dogs and animals seriously.
A delay in banning the use of the Diclofenac drug by the animal husbandry department of the Government of India has created ecological disasters in many parts of the country as seeing a Vulture is becoming rare now. Rather, the species is nearing extinction from the Indian countryside thus upsetting its ecology.
People who love pets and seek foreign breeds must take care of our own indigenous breed, the native Indian dog, and prevent them from becoming nuisance. The native Indian dogs were the hunting partners of the aboriginal people and the stray dogs are the second or third line of descendants of the original native dogs. A few original dogs are still found in the North-East region of India.
These dogs are as intelligent and playful as any superior marketed pets. They are very agile and are of moderate size and have shining silky hair. They have handsome gaiety and better immunity. But no research has been done on them. Of late, the paramilitary forces have started doing research on stray dogs as their sense of smell is found to be better than the usual foreign dogs employed by the police. People must shed the complex of having only foreign breed dogs and must go in for Indian dogs.
Second, the animal husbandry department must have a programme for the welfare of Indian dogs which should include research on their behaviour, genetic mapping, breeding and population control.
local Government bodies must sterilise the stray dogs to check their population. The Animal Welfare Board of the Ministry of Environment must come out of its guidelines only syndrome and must have schemes for the welfare of these animals with proper scientific inputs.
The other wings of the Ministry must come out for managing the population of animals on the sustainability principle and also amend laws dealing with animals other than wildlife to provide deterrent punishment for cruelty on animals.
(The writer is former civil servant)