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STRAY DOG MENACE: HC EXPRESSES DEEP CONCERN
The Panaji Bench of the Bombay High Court has expressed grave concern that the menace of stray dogs is going beyond control and that stray dogs are seen in large numbers in every village, city and even at markets, bus-stands, railway stations and every place where there is human habitation.
In a 30-page landmark judgement Justice D.G. Deshpande and Justice P.V. Hardas have wondered whether love and compassion for animals should be stretched to such an extent as to endanger human life and have now referred the petition filed by People for Elimination of Stray Troubles (PEST) to the
Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court for the formation of a larger bench to consider whether under the circumstances and given the seriousness of the problem, killing of dogs should still be prohibited.
The Public Interest Petition filed by PEST amongst other reliefs has sought directives to the Municipalities and Panchayats to fulfill their obligatory duty under their respective Acts for the confinement and elimination of stray dogs / cattle. The Judges have observed that stray dogs are also found in large numbers around temples, churches, other places of worship, playgrounds, gardens and beaches and that these dogs run after pedestrians, vehicles, children, the aged and infirm.
In their judgement Justice Deshpande and Justice Hardas stated that the agony of the victims who are lucky not to be bitten by a Rabies affected dog are by no way less and that the injections are no less costly and are infact a burden on everybody's purse and that a simple natural death is preferable to the one that is consequent to being bitten by a rabies infected dog.
Stating that Rabies is not the only disease that is gifted by dogs to man, the Judges have added that there are other serious diseases which are spread by dogs and particularly stray dogs.Observing that the NGO's may be working in the urban areas, the Judges noted that they cannot deal with the vast area of the State and in areas where the problem of stray dogs is posing danger to the human population.
Further observing that it is true that animals should not be subjected to unnecessary suffering or pain, the Judges have noted that Prevention of Cruelty Act, 1960 does not at all prohibit extermination or destruction of stray dogs and that there was no legal impediment in this regard and that when it comes to choosing between the suffering of human beings on one side and the suffering of stray dogs on the other side, weightage will have to be given to the suffering of human beings.
Adv. Aires Rodrigues represented the Petitioner while Adv. Norma Alvares argued on behalf of the Animal Welfare Groups. Government of Goa was prepresnted by Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni. Meanwhile Lokayukta, Justice N.Venkatachala, has lambasted animal welfare organisations, particularly those engaged in animal birth control, which oppose putting dogs to sleep.
Speaking about the high incidence of rabies in the country in his 70-page report to the Government after a hearing on a petition filed by Stray Dog Free Bangalore, he has said: "The so-called stray dog lovers in our country, most of whom are fortunate enough to move about in their limousines, may not try to create the wrong impression on the minds of gullible poor people that no harm could come to human beings living and moving about in the City by its stray dogs, as they have sought to do with me.''
Referring to a letter written to the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) by a Union Minister against killing of dogs, Mr. Venkatachala has said that it not only provided an excuse to the BMP authorities to cover up their failures but also was used for "dolling out public money to their favourite organisations in the guise of implementing animal birth control.'' While compassion and sympathy for dogs were unquestionable and were dear to every human being, unleashing of terror by the authorities and the elite by promoting the Animal Birth Control programme and propagating stray dog menace was a clear case of misplaced zeal for dogs at the expense of human beings, he said.
``In fact, street dogs under the birth control programme receive modern vaccine (at public cost) whereas dog-bitten human victims receive outdated sheep brain vaccine. This is against any tenets of philosophy, reason, and virtue and must not happen in any civilised society.'' He quotes an expert who says that dogs are vectors of rabies and that India is the only country where there are animal activists advocating the existence of stray dogs at the risk of human lives.
Mr. Venkatachala has pointed out that F. X. Meslin, chief of a Geneva-based Rabies Division of the World Health Organisation, believed that the animal birth control programme had not stabilised the dog population in India. According to Mr. Meslin, even an international animal welfare organisation
such as the World Society for Protection of Animals did not oppose shooting and "euthanasia'' to tackle the problem. He wonders if the people, who are pleading for saving stray and ownerless dogs in the country, are working for the rabies vaccine manufacturing companies.
Stating that the victims of dog bite were the poor or the City's pavement dwellers, he says that none of them appears to belong to the elite class. Animal lovers who appeared before him during the hearing, "did not appear to be people who could have gone on any day close to such dogs and seen them in
close proximity, for the very close look at them would have probably made them realise the imminent danger posed by them to the lives of our people.''
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