Violent,Stray,Rabid yet protected (?) dogs of India

1. In another blog, I discussed about the evil effects of invasive alien  plant species. This time for a change I will discuss about one of our home grown domestic evils namely stray dogs in the human habitation.  As a child, the locality in which I lived had humans, cows, bulls, oxen, buffaloes, birds, rats, goats, pigs, fishes and many others. Amongst them dogs have a predominant position. After all, dogs figure among the earliest of the domesticated animals of humanity.

 

2. When I was a college student I remember that most of us used to pack our food from home. Everyone will have an identified space for us to have our lunch. That there will be sharing and exchanges. One of the uninvited guest of such occasions were stray dogs.I am talking about those days when most of the strays  were not administered anti rabies vaccines as Municipal Corporations routinely do these dogs. Not too many veterinary doctors know anything about sterilizing these animals. Biological process will never stop and hence one could see the multiplication of these stray dogs as well. Occasionally some of the skilled persons   nominated by the landlord’s family who ran our college will descend in our college on a holiday, cull out all the dogs in a traditional and cruel way  and send it for burial in the  nearby citrus gardens. Farmers those days believed that decaying dog flesh and bones increased the yield of the citrus plantations. 

3. Gone are the good old days. Now you have PETA. They collect a lot of money from wherever possible by imaginative advertisements. They say that all animals including strays have a right to live in dignity. While killing of animals for food is inevitable and in fact necessary, killing of them on other reasons is not legally acceptable. If they can the PETA will declare that animals also have as much right to live as humans.

4.It is in these circumstances I intend discussing about the problem of stray and violent dogs in Kerala. When I was there I realized that one of the responsible Mayors of Cochin Municipal Corporation recommended the culling of the street dogs despite the fact that she hailed from a Jain family. Nevertheless, judicial orders have ensured that culling of street dogs as a policy was discouraged but was permitted by judicial orders. Now a days,these dogs were caught sterilized, administered anti rabies and released back in the same environment it was caught. By this way,  the courts thought that the problem of stray dog population in Kerala will blow itself off like forest fires. 
Below is the district wise break up of the incidents according to the findings of the Supreme Court appointed panel 1.
- Thiruvananthapuram (5,948)
- Palakkad (4,916)
- Kollam (3,670)
- Pathanamthitta (2,892)
- Alappuzha (2,967)
- Ernakulam (2,050)
- Thrissur (2,044)
- Kottayam (1,614)

5. But unfortunately, things did not occur the way the Courts wished. Wherever I have gone in Kerala I have seen in most of the busy places I saw a disproportionately high number of stray or abandoned dogs. Most of these dogs had unique features particularly relating to their ears, tails body shape which clearly indicated that these dogs are not the decedents of the traditional Kerala dogs.

6. Nevertheless, these dogs of the native Keralite soil (if one goes by human rules of domicile) inflicted huge death toll in Kerala. In many ways in Kerala the violent dogs and the human population have learned the art of peaceful coexistence.

Stray dog menace

7. In all fairness, I must state that the problem of stray dogs and other stray animal is not peculiar only to the state of Kerala. If one travels in the toll roads of Gujarat and Rajasthan, people can find uncastrated aged bulls happily loitering in 4 lane highways. It is not unusual to see packs of dogs as well. In fact, I live in Malleswaram Bangalore. Surely Bangalore has the stray dogs. But I must confess that I have not encountered any strays in Malleswaram area while I see stray cats very often. My enquiries reveal that surely there are parts in Bangalore where there are stray dogs.

 Mule Wasihun an Ethiopian athlete in the TCS World 10K in Bengaluru 

Though there are very occasional newspaper reports about stray attacking young child carrying food, they do not occur as often as it does in Kerala. In this connection, I think I should compare the behavioral patterns and morphological feature of the stray dogs that I encountered in Pondicherry, Pune and Ernakulam. To begin with Kerala stray dogs were short yet sturdy . They had unique fur and many of these dogs descended from foreign well bred dogs contaminating the local dog genetic pool 2.. Added to that Kerala is one among the most non-vegetarian states in India. Consequently, there is a lot of animal waste. The stray dogs naturally feed on this animal waste and possibly display an aggressive character inherent in any carnivore.

8. On the other hand, the dogs that I saw in Pune are taller and leaner. Dogs like all mammal are territorials. When you get in the dog territory, the dog makes an assessment about you and gives an acknowledging bark. If you reciprocate it and convince him that you are not a threat to his security or a food provider, it let you go in peace. Mind you ,India has a lot of food providers to stray animals.Such a behaviour is prohibited conduct in many European towns. Rarely there are documented death of children getting mauled by stray in Pune.

9. The dogs that I see in Pondicherry are shorter, leaner and meaner. In fact, every street in the so called white town has at least 3 dogs each controlling one 3^rd of the total length of the road. For no reason with every passing pedestrian they bark.They are beginning to understand the futility of chasing two wheelers and cars. Their barking invite the attention of all the neighbourhood’s dogs. All these come one  after another and record their presence by high pitched barking at  the poor pedestrian and normally does not attack anyone in a ferocious way.  Surely, there must be dog bites in Pondicherry , but that can wait as there are other problems

10. I am convinced that despite the varying degrees of danger that the stray dogs pose in the 3 different parts I identified I am convinced that stray dogs are pest. They need to be exterminated forthwith. In fact the city of Bombay alone since its independence has lost more life because of stray dog bites than the entire terrorism related deaths in India. 
Under law all the  animals come under the following categories .

(a).Protected animals :- Animals like peacock , tiger , lion,  elephants  etc are protected under the Indian Wildlife Act. Even if people suffer damages due to these animals should not harm the protected animal in any way. They can only seek compensation in case they suffer a loss. However all humans have a right of self defense . The right of self-defense enable human to kill even protected animals if these animals stray in into habitation and post danger to the residents living there. 

  (b) Vermin:- These are animals which are protected  in natural environment. You should not kill these animals in their habitat. If these animals come to your private property, then you can kill them and use them the way you like. Rats ,monkeys rabbits etc.Recently, the BJP , Himachal Pradesh has declared Hanuman Faced Monkey as Vermin.A Coorg or Chickmagalur planter would prefer wild boar declared as Vermin. 

(c)Pest:- are animals which have been recognised to be the worst competitors of the human race in their struggle for existence. Rats figure as pest almost everywhere in the world. Wherever they are considered as prolix breeders and have known to take away food resources which are stored by humans. Hence many civilisation show ruthless disregard for the life of these pests.

In addition, human beings breed animals such as chicken, pig, cattle ,turkey, rabbits,fish for their food. These animals can always be killed in a legally licensed abattoir

11. In these circumstances, I consider that the stray dog is a pest within the meaning of Indian animal rights protection laws. If anyone is very sympathetic to these animals,  they can  adopt  the strays as their pets. Infact, PETA is doing it in questionable way. Apparently they have collected a lot of money for it. But they cannot compel the municipalities to provide a safe habitat for the stray dogs for them to inflict damage on human kind. Hence, if the strays enter your property, even if it’s not a pest it’s a vermin. Certainly it is not a protected animal. Whether it’s pest or vermin their well-meaning people will have a right to terminate it or cull it in a most human way.Hence the victims of Kerala should petition the government to declare the dogs as pest or vermin depending on the areas were the dog population density is threatening  to human living.In the event of the government of Kerala  failing to honour the demand they should approach to High court seeking a declaration of stray  dogs  either as pest or as vermin. Let us not any more suffer in silence the  bites of rabid stray  dogs. True, animals in India have a right to life and should not be subjected to cruelty. This right cannot take away the right of citizenry to exterminate pests. 

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