Ever loving, never loved

Amidst the vast population of the country are an enormous number of ill-treated, unhealthy and injured street animals, with dogs constituting the majority of them. These street dogs face a great deal of cruelty in the hands of Indians. They are kicked, stoned, abused, run over and often tortured among other forms of brutality.

The ardent dog-lover that I am, loyal, friendly, loving, compassionate, endearing and plain adorable are the first thoughts that cross my mind when I think of dogs. Domestic or stray, they are all the same to me. However, given the way they are treated in the country, they clearly are not as loved as they deserve to be.

These animals face abuse in the hands of children and adults as well. Seen a lot with the uneducated population, we often find that there are those who gain some kind of sick, twisted pleasure by afflicting torture on these animals. There are better ways to achieve such feelings with having to resort to such barbaric means. One can only wonder how such sadism can make anyone feel good about themselves.

Civic bodies no different

Such abuse occurs at the hands of not just the general not-so-animal-friendly public, but from civic bodies as well. We frequently hear news of street dogs being neutered without being given sedatives or anesthetics. These reports are often heart wrenching stories of neutered dogs being left in a bloody mess after they are done being operated on. Such civic bodies are expected to watch over the welfare of these animals but instead, special institutions need to be set up to keep a check on their cold-blooded acts.

Founder of Voice of Stray Dogs and animal rights activist Rakesh Shukla believes that even in developed cities like Bangalore, street dogs are harmed and ill-treated, with civic bodies too, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike in this case, indulging in such misdeeds. He believes that the BBMP’s Animal Husbandry Department is especially dedicated to illegal relocation of street dogs.

According to their Animal Birth Control program, which was adopted to maintain the population of street dogs in the city at a manageable number, they need to capture the dogs, neuter them, and once they are operated on, drop them back in the same locality that they were taken from. However, these dogs are more often than not dropped off at an entirely different locality. Given their territorial nature, these dogs fight amongst themselves, and in the process, not only do they injure themselves, but are also termed a nuisance by residents as a result of the entire ruckus they create.

People’s rush, their doom

Being stoned and kicked out of the way are common everyday occurrences in the lives of street dogs. But these are in close competition with them being run over and either getting injured, or losing their lives altogether. These animals go unnoticed and are often ignored by people on the roads who are always in a hurry to get to places. Their negligible regard for their lives is evident with their refusal to slow down even a wee bit.

Does it cause people such a great deal of pain to simply slow down a tad just so these animals can move away from their approaching vehicle? The degree to which people can extend their heartlessness is purely mind boggling.

There is no law against treating street dogs with compassion, nor is there one against feeding them or giving them a place to stay. No matter how many times they are pelted at with stones or harmed in any way, the nature of dogs is such that they would go wagging their tails at the very same people if they are approached with kindness. It pains me to watch them run away at the slightest twitch of a limb from even those who truly care about them, as cruelty is all that they have faced their entire lives.

Their sad plight is being dealt with by several animal rights organizations and NGOs taking up their cause and looking out of their welfare as well. There are institutions which provide them with homes and also battle for their rights in cases of intolerable cruelty.

There isn’t much that I care for as much as I do for these creatures. By no means can I even begin to comprehend how one can bring themselves to being nasty to these dogs. An urgent change in attitude towards them is needed. People need to reach out to their humanity and bring an end to such brutality towards these hapless animals.