The air is already too thick to breathe; there is corruption at every level; criminal activities are at an all-time high, and unemployment is a serious cause of concern! But, if we are to take on one major issue today, that surely is the menace of the ‘lame’ street dog! While educational institutions are directed to include compassion for animals and nature in their training of young minds, and public transport departments are instructed to be kind and not run over street animals, it is still the street dog that awakens sentiments more profound than even faith. Thus, it is not shocking at all that the fate of the Indie dogs hangs in balance! It is indeed shocking that the amount of hate, intolerance, insensitivity, and injustice that comes its way has not turned this emotional, living and feeling species extinct!
But the day may not be far when the Indie dog will be as rare as the Indie wolf! Why, sending it packing from almost everywhere ‘public’ to unseen homes will surely rid this menace for good! In a country where old age homes and orphanages beg for donations- ruing indefinite delays in government funds/grants, farmers’ dues remain pending, and goshalas have cows that remain forever hungry; imagining land availability, food, water and service for the man's best friend is a little too far-fetched- even for the most imaginative! Not to mention emotional support in strange surroundings, because these are extremely sentimental and highly territorial creatures. Doomed is the society where the legally fundamental right to free and safe living is the prerogative of human beings alone! India is turning into a land full of callous, shallow, and extremely selfish people!
There is no considering the fact that the street dogs are mercilessly tortured and teased by kids (mostly termed poor) and looked down upon by those who consider pedigree to be a status symbol! In such a case, if one amongst a hundred snaps at us, is that a crime? Domestic dogs have a greater tendency to bite. Have there not been incidents of pedigree dogs mauling their masters/mistresses to death! Why didn’t we ban pedigree dogs? Why didn’t we stop the commercial breeding of dogs? Why, in the case of the mongrel, are we exaggerating a situation that can easily be handled?
Why, one is more threatened by hordes of filthy beggars that surround us wherever we go- be it crossings, outside restaurants and malls, and even at our doorsteps! Dogs don’t pass on zoonotic diseases- rather prevent many viruses from reaching us - but beggars, the filthy lot, do carry contagious diseases and do pass them on to us! Why have we never addressed this menace, which also happens to be a crime under the law of the land?
Come to it, why are we not taking monkey menace in urban areas seriously? Dogs don’t enter our houses, but monkeys invade our property in groups and can turn very vicious. They break flower pots, destroy and damage whatever takes their fancy, and even open refrigerators! The incidents of them biting unsuspecting people- aged, kids, women, or young - have been rising. We can vaccinate a street dog against rabies, but not the wild monkeys, and monkeys are the biggest carriers of rabies! What’s more, they can pass on zoonotic diseases too. We can even train a street dog, but can we train a monkey? But the thin Indie remains the biggest culprit, mainly in the eyes of the snobbish lobby that turns up its nose at everything ‘ew-ish’- a destitute, a pauper, a servant or even a roadside vendor trying to earn an honest living!
Okay, so there are random cases of stray dog bites, but there are endless cases of rapes, murders, molestations, road rages, terrorist attacks and frauds! There may be some cases of rabies, but countless cases of cancers, tuberculosis, contagious allergies, snakebites, suicides and coronavirus-caused deaths! First, you put dogs on the streets, do nothing to control their population, and then want them out of sight- unbothered by the fact that they would meet a fate worse than death... And ultimately slow, painful, hungry death itself! Just stop calling yourself human!
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