Are you Listening, Maneka Gandhi?
Monday, 15. January 2007 - 1:35 PM
Where are the self-styled “protectors” of animals now?
The stray dog menace in the city on Friday reached a brutal high when a pack of nine stray dogs ripped apart an eight-year-old girl on 9th Main in Chandra Layout.
These nitwits yell and holler about animal care and protection but has anyone examined their record of serving the poor creatures? They turn up at street corners, malls, offices, and schools for charity but like everybody else in this country, they are accountable to none. But when incidents like this happen, they assume stoic 
silence. Look at this heartbreaking picture of the poor girl.
Stray dogs in Bangalore have become an intolerable menace. At night especially, they chase two-wheelers with singular ferocity, terrifying the rider. I’ve been a victim and have nearly avoided crashing on several occasions. I see absolutely no reason to keep them in Bangalore. The locality I live in has countless numbers of these species—they breed like crazy, chase newcomers, bark throughout the day, and don’t let you sleep at night. To add to the misery, we have several freaks who feed them every single day, a perverse form of expressing their love for animals.
As President of the Protect the Stray Dogs Committee, Maneka Gandhi needs to be hauled up and made responsible for this event. If her love for stray dogs overfloweth, why doesn’t she keep them at her home? She won’t because talk is easy and cheap and brings her publicity. This is true in varying degrees for every animal rights “activist” in India. After all, their children won’t die in this manner.
Update: Janaki has a detailed, almost academic, analysis of the stray dog menace in India. Worth reading.
15. January 2007 - 1:49 PM
That’s a tragedy… unfortunately not much can be done about the stray dogs. They tried in Mumbai to euthanise, but what happened was that dogs came in from outside and there were fights to take over the territory that was vacated. A Europe / USA style solution did not work because of the easy availability of food in garbage and large numbers of stray dogs coming from outside the city.
Eventually vets volunteered to neuter or spay the strays and put them back in their territory. This eased the problem of fights and aggressive dogs.
It’s odd that MG would not think the stray dogs are a problem. It is one thing to talk about how people mistreat dogs, but since the dogs are a public nuisance, something should definitely be done.
(got here via desipundit, hello )
15. January 2007 - 4:21 PM
Stray dogs are indeed a menace but I believe that taking off on animal rights activists will get us nowhere. One of the root causes of this problem is the lack of cleanliness in our residential localities. It should be noted that newspaper reports mentioned that this sad incident happened in an area where waste meat was being disposed of in an open area – a sure recipe for not only breeding dogs but all kinds of diseases. The Bangalore corporation cannot escape its responsibility for allowing such shops to function without ensuring proper disposal of waste. This is an issue that requires to be tackled both by the civic authorities as well as by animal rights activists.
16. January 2007 - 7:52 AM
See my article on the subject in Sunday Express on my blog.
16. January 2007 - 10:47 AM
Hi! Sandeep,’only’ stray dogs are not mence.Blame stray cows too,I lost a friend 15 years back cause was hit by a stray cow while he was returning home on his bike.
I would like to draw your attention to a very recent incident happened in Delhi’s Samay pur Badali where a 5 yrs. old child was devoured ‘alive’ by stray pigs.
I did not hear Ms.Maneka Then!
16. January 2007 - 11:08 AM
Nagaraj,
You’re right but we need to criticize these activists in letting the stray dog menace compound. It is owing to their pressure that the municipal corporations have let them back on the streets. And I agree with you on the problem of (the lack of) cleanliness. But letting stray dogs loose will only add to this existing problem of filth, right? With these dogs out of the way, we have one problem less!
17. January 2007 - 12:40 PM
Just a couple of points:
1. The entire ABC Programme in India is a hoax, not to mention the fact that it actually legalizes the straying of dogs and is therefore is illegal and unconstitutional. Despite being India’s official, national policy for the control of rabies in dogs, it is missing the rabies component altogether! It is NOT based on WHO guidelines, contrary to tall claims by Animal Welfare Organizations and self appointed ‘animal activists’. No WHO report/document lays down that dogs should be left on the streets to die of diseases, starvation and accidents.
2. The ABC policy was made a law by Maneka Gandhi when she was the Minister of Culture. Not many people are aware of the fact that the Dog Control Rules, 2001 (based verbatim on the ABC guidelines) were passed by the Ministry of Culture under her, despite the fact that the Ministry has nothing to do with public health, nuisance and animal control. Every single unrelated Ministry that she has headed (Culture, Social Justice, Programming and Statistics) has funded Animal Welfare Organization’s, including her own, for ABC. As a result the Ministry of Health has never been involved in dealing with a serious public health issue like rabies and dog bites.
3. Under the Right to Information Act, the Animal Welfare Board of India has submitted that over the last decade, it has doled out over $5 million to AWO’s for the ABC Programme and sheltering homeless animals. Even then, millions of people and dogs continue to suffer and the only beneficiaries of the ABC Program have been AWO’s who get tax payers money with no accountability whatsoever.
Meghna
17. January 2007 - 7:14 PM
Hi Sandeep,
I faced the same situation man. Stray dogs are a menace. They chase people in the night. I myself faced such a situation around 2 months back. More than traffic I guess its stray dogs which are Bangalore’s problem.
29. January 2007 - 2:41 PM
We at Stray Dog Free Bangalore (SDFB) have been warning that such things will indeed happen more than 5 years ago.The moment we started our society , the DFog rules 2001 we placed in the parliment .
The bigggest problemn is that it is such a big vaccine market in this country that it is in hte interest of the multi national vaccine manufacturing cos, and the Animal welfare groups’s interest to keep raking in money by having these dogs all over India. They are the only benificiaries to this situation .
Strict dog ownership Rules and elimination of stray dogs from the streets is the only way out, as is done all over the world.
If there is a political will there is a way to do even the impossible in our country .
It is unfortunate that only the poor are the victims and they do not have a voice , so to speak.
For all those who would like to join SDFB please contact 98804 33711 .
10. February 2007 - 6:15 PM
i dont see anything wrong in killing these dogs..because after all there is open killing of chicken, goat/lamb and even beef which people eat…why dosent meneka gandhi stop this?..if she cant stop the killing of poor goats and chicken then why the hell has she has put a ban on killing dogs..who are a big menace here in mumbai…stray dogs are really of no benefit instead a threat to human society and a nuisance at night..to some extent even the BMC is helpless because of meneka gandhi as it becomes very dificult to steralise so many dogs…killing is the only option…
12. February 2007 - 6:05 PM
I haven’t been to many cities in India, but compared to the other major cities in south India, Bangalore has a huge number of stray dogs and they are everywhere. Even here, there are too many cases of stray dogs following the bikers and one of my friends got his share in an early morning one day. Walking or biking at nights or early morning have become very dangerous because these dogs come in groups at these times like thugs.
Also, as someone pointed out stray cows are also a problem. Not as huge as this, but those fellas sometime make the middle of the roads as their rest rooms causing traffic issues and shits like hell everywhere.
I don’t want any of them to be killed, but if there is anyway to control their population and to take them to a shelter (if MG is willing) that would be a great service.
20. February 2007 - 5:29 PM
Righteous indignation by self appointed guardians of humanity! Well, if Maneka Gandhi should keep all the dogs inside her house just because she is concerned about them, then Sandeep and his ilk should be asked poor children. The death of the girl in Bangalore is a direct result of poverty. She came from a poor family and was left all alone at 6.30 in the morning to fend for herself. Will a middle class child be out all alone at that time of the day? That too when you know that the place has packs of dogs? Show your sympathies by adopting children.
All of you who call for extermination, please remember that killing was in vogue till 1999, but never succeeded in eliminating rabies or reducing stray dog numbers. Have you asked yourself why it was never effective? On an average, Bangalore killed 100 dogs everyday, but still 50 people died of rabies each year till 1999. the numbers never came down. But with the ABC program in operation, even the Health Minister conceded that numbers have come down by 21%. This despite the program being operational for just 3 years and that too not all of Bangalore is covered.
Diana’s concern for the poor is laudable. Well, has she moved a finger for the sake of the poor in this city? She is an arm chair critic who uses poverty as a convenient tool to push her own agenda, like many people do. They love poverty and the poor because it keeps them in business.
4. March 2007 - 1:33 AM
If killing all the dogs is the answer, just because one pack of dogs killed one girl, then why don’t we kill all men because one man killed tons of children( read Moninder Singh!)Does that make you laugh?Sounds absurd,maybe?Sounds illogical right??Exactly!
You say that you cannot ride at night because stray dogs chase you. Well, I say that I cannot DRIVE at night because lusty men chase me, should I start a petition to kill-all-stray-men too?
Seriously, please atleast pretend to have an iota of intelligence!
It’s absolutely unfair and uncalled for to say the ABC program is a hoax. To those of you who’ld still insist it is,I urge you to take a day off and visit one of them. You’ll see they’re doing their bit. The number of stray dogs have come done by a 50% as compared to 10 years ago. Don’t point fingers just because it’s simple to do so!
Eveyone’s talking about killing them but why not try a different approach. Maybe food? Keep a man hungry for days and you’re not going to find him in a pleasant mood,are you? Why don’t we sterilize the dogs,vaccinate them and feed them regularly? Instead of throwing your yummy dosas and chicken curry made at home, give it to the hapless,hungry dogs in your vicinity. There is no way they’ll bite you after that.
It’s so easy to blame Maneka Gandhi for the entire episode. Thank God for people like her who do respect life in general.
Ms Diana Bharucha has honestly done nothing but break wind,if I may say so. If she cares so much about the poor, the least she could do is educate them and tell them to teach their little ones NOT to pick up pups from litters. I agree with Mr Gopi Shankar. She seems to enjoy the attention more than anything else.
31. December 2008 - 2:02 PM
I agree 110% with Shreya!
You cannot condemn the entire dog breed just because of a few incidences.
I have spend by entire life with stray dogs & have NEVER been bitten or hurt in my life! I guess it also has a lot to do with parents conditioning in the earlier-on years of the child. Teach your kids to be kind to strays & dont infilter their minds with thoughts of hatrat, harm or fright. I have seen young kids pelt stones at pups, with their parents standing a few feet away giving their silent approval & support.
Please get them sterilsed, as that is the only thing which has been proven to work!!! Dogs are aggresive during 2 phases- during mating season & for food. So if you get them sterilised (which is just a call away. you will know which ones are already sterilied as they will have their ear clipped. Atleast that is how they do it in Mumbai)& provide them with food. Believe me, you’ll have a healthy dog & a loyal friend for life.
At my last job, we used to take care of 8 stray dogs, & that meant- getting them vaccinated/ sterilised (& thats not difficult. just call an NGO & they will take care of it)& providing them with food. They are healthy, friendly dogs now who contribute positively to the society.
So please show them some love and compassion. They are much better than human-beings.
16. August 2009 - 5:51 PM
- It appears that in India dogs have more rights than human beings. They can kill, terrorize, can foul any place of their choice and are still don’t have to face any action.
- More number of people are killed every year by rabies/ dog bites than by terrorist – why our society has not become humane to them.
- If we the Indians love animals so much then why we are allowing the sale of insecticides of thousands of crores of rupees every year. Let the insects/rats breed, and let the famines be created. If only India stop use of pesticides, more number of insects can be saved than the entire human population on the surface of earth now living or have ever lived.
- If dogs have rights, what is the fault of lakhs of innocent chickens, goats, pigs, fish, etc who are butchered daily to feed the greedy humans – which can survive as vegetarian also.
Let the sense of proportion be prevailed. Either we should follow uniform treatment for all the animals or there is no need to give rights to some of the animals so that some of the politicians can hog the lime light and rest of the populations suffers.
1. September 2009 - 3:57 PM
It is not a matter of just one dog killing one nine year old girl.
According to current estimate (prepared by WHO) 50,000 human deaths are caused by rabies each year on a global basis, 90% of these in Asia. India and Bangladesh have the highest incidence of rabies in the South East Asian Region. It is estimated that there are approximately 18,000 human rabies deaths in India per year (WHO Report 2004).
If we value the lives of eighteen thousand of our fellow countrymen it is important that we do something about the stray dog menace and do something as soon as possible. Kindness to stray dogs should not be at the cost of 18,000 human lives every year.
24. March 2010 - 3:01 AM
Old aged people had said right. Humanity has came to a verge of end. People who support killing of dogs , dont deserve to be alive. They should be eliminated first. Mankind has become so selfish that they dont Care about the lovely animals whom are indispenseble part of our social life. People only think about making money and living up their own personal life .All people who hate stray dogs try this . Go near a dog and throw a biscuit at him now look at his eyes directly , see how his ears turn down to show respect to you , see his body movement, if you have a human inside your soul then you will accuse yourself for not loving those helpless dogs. They will pay with their lives for your need. I dont know why people dont love stray dogs. The greats said – dogs are superior than human because they only learn human’s intellegence and good habits and kindness , not rudeness , selfishness , cruelty. People like Menaka Gandhi are todays god . And they are actual human . Because of people like her todays world still has some human touch to it.