Stray Dogs – Pets v/s Pest

Three young lives have been sacrificed for nothing but the fury of stray dogs in India – a developing country in the last couple of months. Immediate reaction from the government will be to go for a dog hunting mission and NGO’s or Animal rights activists will be the first one to cash in. Finally the capturing will be called off and it happens that the government will have to call back the dog catchers and the department will go on sleep till the next mishap.

Most of the time when I see NGO’s or human rights activist conduct a rally against such things, I rarely see people from the middle or lower class being a participant in it. And most of the time people of this category that are at the receiving end of the dog menace. I myself have been chased by stray dogs many a times when I had to travel late night to reach my home from office.

So what would you value the most? Stray dogs or those innocent lives?

Don’t misread my objective here. I am not against animals and I do have lots of pets at home. But I never let them or myself to be a nuisance to others. I still remember the day when I cried at the death my pet dog Caesar. You can’t expect a government to solve this issue by making a dog impotent to have cubs. This is next to impossible as by the time you perform this on even 400+ adult dogs, next breed of dogs would’ve already been born. Neither can you expect the government to rehab them with our notorious infrastructure management policies.

If the NGO’s or animal rights activists can do anything about this issue, it will be to step forward and come up with a plan to have rehab centers – funded, made and ruled by them. If this can’t be done, there is no point in simply accusing the government for their actions. If you have so much empathy towards animals why don’t you go fight with those people who butcher the wild animals in our forests?

So if you are just doing it for the sake of having your name printed in the newspapers or giving a one hour speech in a television channel, please don’t do that. It doesn’t worth enough to match the pain of a mother who has just lost their hopes to a stray dog.

Even you will agree that once you step out of your bungalows or Z category security. Or try sending your kids to play in a dog infested play ground.