Who should be given priority—Dogs or humans?
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Stray dog menace is a talking point in Kerala again after a group of them mauled all over the body of Nihal Naushad, an autistic child from Muzhapilangat in Kannur district, to death. The discussions involving the courts and the government seem to have concluded that sterilizing stray dogs is the permanent solution to the problem. To the question of whose life is more important at a critical juncture, a human’s or that of an animal’s, the common answer is human life. But in reality that is not the case. Even the Supreme Court is unable to categorically say that ultimate measures have to be taken when stray dog menace crosses all limits. Rather than considering the petition submitted to it following Nihal’s tragic death, the Supreme Court has directed the petitioner to approach the Kerala High Court. The fact is that the High Courts have limitations in recommending a remedy as long as a court ruling and the extraordinary 2001 law on the matter remain in force. As per the Animal Birth Control Act 4, seven-member supervisory committees should be formed in the local bodies. These committees decide the future of the captured dogs in accordance with the complaints received. They can have veterinarians either administer neutering or vaccination. A special cell can be formed to receive complaints about rabid dog and stray dog nuisance. The law also mandates local bodies to set up rehabilitation shelters for stray dogs. Imagine the local bodies, who are unable to provide shelters for humans wandering on empty stomachs, are asked to set up tens of thousands cages and provide food for ‘inmates’ in them. The law dictates that something that is hardly feasible.
While the law requires a total of 82 sterilization centres in Kerala, there are only 18 at present. Till March 31, only 32,061 out of three lakh stray dogs were sterilized. A dog neutering campaign, which was once carried out enthusiastically has quickly fizzled out. Nowhere is it happening systematically, and it is known to be not practical beyond certain limit. The main obstacle is the acute shortage of trained handlers. Secondly, they are paid very less. It is estimated that neutering a dog costs up to Rs.600. No local body has the required fund earmarked for it. How is the state government, already struggling to pay salaries to employees on time, supposedly going to sterilize millions of dogs? Local bodies point out that to carry out sterilization effectively, they require mobile units with facilities like laboratory and vaccination kits. Each unit will cost at least 25 lakhs.
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Given the situation where deaths from rabies are increasing exponentially, alongside severe shortage of drugs, it is about time to find alternative measures. Modern India has never found a greater advocate of a non-violence than Mahatma Gandhi. His words on the menace is worth listening to: ‘It should be a sin to feed stray dogs and we should save numerous dogs if we had legislation making every stray dog liable to be shot… Humanity is a noble attribute of the soul. It is not exhausted with saving a few dogs. Such saving may even be sinful.’ (Young India October 21, 1926). But what is being implemented in the country is not Mahatma Gandhi’s suggestion but Menaka Gandhi’s dogma. The laws she brought into force without even discussing in the parliament claim thousands of innocent lives. In order to make love for humans and dogs sincere, these laws have to be overhauled.
