sleeping dogs, originally uploaded by javeja.

 

i wanted to write something about the current situation in bangalore with the stray dogs. Initiated by an incident 3 weeks ago when a young 3 year old boy died due to a stray dog attack, things have been getting tough for stray dogs in bangalore. first the responsible administration said that no dogs should be harmed and in cooperation with some animal rights NGOs over a period of 1 week dogs were captured and brought to animal shelters. of course things got rough… citiziens complained that only the well-off areas were “cleaned” of the dogs and the areas where the problem was the worst, there nothing changed. the catcher caught dogs that were no strays dogs after all. an animal rights ngos has a video where thousands of dogs were culled although nothing should have happened to them. the animal shelters were soon full so some caught dogs that were brought there and left in cages died from the heat and dehydration. there were protest demos against the dog catching and culling. today i read that this issue has taken a spiritual turn when a guru went on a indefinite hungerstrike to protest against the current situation. i am not saying that the stray dog problem isn´t a massive problem after all. but i think it is far better to sterilize them and immunalize them against rabies then to kill them all. this will cause an unbalance and is just cruel behaviour. not all stray dogs are mean and attack. most of them are nice dogs. the ones that do attack have to get captured. but sadly most of the caught ones that have died didn´t belong to this category. and i think it is outrageous for the responsible administration to promise not to harm the harmless stray dogs and then after capturing a great deal to decide to kill them. This is not right and very cruel. Is not the fault of all the stray dogs if a few of them (the minority) attacks and bites. those should be taken care of cuz there are dangerous but the others: leave them alone, don´t harm them.

for more information on this topic:

BBC News South Asia- Stray dogs killed

Indian Express- Bangalore goes to the dogs

The Hindu- Media has created a scare about stray dogs

The Hindu- Drive launched against stray dogs, 200 killed