By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

A fortnight ago, I was shocked and shaken on reading the news that a seventy-six-year-old retired lady school teacher, who was on her morning walk, was brutally attacked by a pack of a dozen stray dogs and mauled to death. The helpless lady was bitten all over her body so severely, that she did not even make it to the nearby hospital, where she was quickly rushed, by some alert passersby. She was declared dead, upon arrival there.

Now, this ghastly incident did not happen in some remote rural area, ungoverned by a civic body, but in the heart of Jalahalli in Bengaluru, a city with a Municipal Corporation that is vested with the responsibility of ensuring the safety of all its tax-paying citizens.

And, this responsibility also includes the all-important but not so difficult job, of keeping its precincts free from stray animals like cattle, horses, pigs, donkeys and dogs. That most of our cities continue to be plagued by every one of these free-to-fend-for-themselves, stray animals, is a mute but shameful testimony to the appalling inefficiency with which our civic authorities are discharging their duties, for which they shamelessly collect hefty taxes and heftier salaries too!

I do not know what the reaction was from the family members of that poor lady, by way of taking legal action against the authorities for neglecting their duties, but I can fathom what shock, anguish and grief they must have gone through as a result of their horrific loss. Imagine a family member being literally torn apart and mauled to death by a pack of violent dogs.

And, also imagine what pain and agony the helpless lady must have gone through, before death came to her, actually as an angel of kindness and mercy, to end her pain! Incidents like these, of stray dogs attacking and biting people are sadly quite common place in all our towns and cities, although the one I’m talking about, stands out for its extreme severity and most tragic end.

No other animal shares the unique kinship with man that the dog enjoys and although people have kept all kinds of pets since prehistoric times, the dog undoubtedly continues to be the most favourite. But dog lovers should realise that their love for their pets and the strays should not mean that only dogs have all the rights to a peaceful and safe existence over the rights people who have to coexist with them. They should understand that people too have a right to a safe and unmolested existence.

The stray dog population of the world is estimated to be around 700 million and the ways in which civic authorities have been dealing with stray animals have thankfully seen much change over the years, even as my memory serves me.

Earlier, while stray dogs used to be dealt with by poisoning them, things have thankfully changed to more humane measures like just catching and sterilising them. This is being done with the very logical intention of preventing their proliferation, thus eventually eliminating their presence on the streets. Going by some very sane reasoning, this is a very effective measure that should work very well.

And, it has been working admirably well too in most other countries of the world, especially in places like Singapore, Great Britain and many European countries. The Netherlands has the unique distinction of being the country that can boast of a most successful stray dog management programme where it has managed to eliminate them without culling them, just by the sterilising method.

But what has worked admirably well in the Netherlands and elsewhere somehow seems to have failed to work most miserably, in our country. The only reason for this failure is not the high fertility of Indian stray dogs but the low sense of commitment on the part of our stray dog management programmes. That is why, while we do sometimes see our dog squads in action, catching and sterilising the strays and letting them out on the streets, we find our strays regularly littering on all our streets!

And, the most surprising and visible outcome of all this effort is that the sizes of their litters too only seem to be increasing. The dogs that used to have only three pups at a time, now seem to be having six, after undergoing government sponsored sterilisation! Because this dismal scenario does not seem to be changing for the better, I feel that it is better if we rethink a little and change our approach to the stray dog problem.

The first thing that needs to be done is to bring in legislation to ensure that all stray dogs, fertile or infertile are taken off the streets and all the pet dogs are always confined to the homes of their owners or always kept on a leash when taken out. Because we have a huge population of stray dogs and an equally huge population of people who claim to love them, it would be better if our authorities create facilities to keep them comfortable and look after them well.

Dog lovers and animal rights activists would then have a good chance to show their love for them by visiting these places and feeding them there and by also donating the money required for their upkeep and even supervise the programme to their satisfaction. I am sure they would not fail to do this because I see many dog lovers, even the ones who never own any dogs, regularly feeding stray dogs on our streets. A lady who has made it her mission to do good to them, has chosen to do it in my neighbourhood, over the past so many months.

Every evening, she comes unfailingly, with a young boy on a two-wheeler, with a bucketful of leftover food and feeds all the stray dogs, calling out lovingly to each one of them by the names she has given every one of them. People who know her have told me that she runs a paying guest facility and so she does not have to go in search of leftover food or in search of an easy way to dispose it off. The same people also tell me that she never dispenses her kindness in her own locality.

So, thanks to her kindness, while she enjoys a tranquil, stray dog-free life in her own neighbourhood, we have at least twenty robust and well-fed stray dogs in ours. Each passing day, they growl menacingly and chase and threaten every man, woman and child who passes through what has now become their territory.

Every morning, when I drive out of my home in my car, all twenty of them, chase my car and bid adieu to me with the cacophony of their barking, before deciding to turn back only after they have run a mile and after they have all run out of breath. That is when I heave a sigh of relief and thank my stars that I am inside my car and not outside!

And, by night, when there’s no one on the streets to chase or harass, they adopt a different pastime. With their incessant howling, barking and brawling, they keep us all, the young, the old, the healthy and the sick, the tired and the sleepy, deprived of their much-needed sleep, all through the night.

That is perhaps the price man has to pay, for some compassionate people’s misplaced love for the unowned, neighbourhood dog, which often ends up making man’s existence, a dog’s life!

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