Save Our Animals

Posted by Rasika in Concerns, Featured, News, Other | 5 comments

One of the common problems in Trivandrum is the ‘stray dog menace’ - which means a general fear of street dogs, fear of rabies and fear of bites. For years the city corporations have been trying to eliminate the menace by killing stray dogs. The methods involved are outright inhuman. They include strangulation, eloctrocution, poking with tongs, dashing their heads over a wall, starvation etc. Dogs were and still are considered to be ‘man’s best friend’. How is it that stray dogs are killed all over India mercilessly and inhumanly? Every year the municipal corporations all over India kill nearly a third of the dog population, with little effect. There still isn’t a notable decrease in the dog numbers which tells us that the killing is simply not working. The key here is to eliminate the problem, not the animal concerned.

The Animal Birth Control Program ( ABC program) was initiated in India on 5 Feb 1994 and was propagated by the People for Animals all over India. Here street dogs are brought in, dewormed, checked for fleas and icks, immunised, sterilized and then released back in the same area from where they were collected. Sterilization has been proven as the more effective way to curb the dog population explosion and the incidences of rabies. The World Health Organization backs the idea of sterilizing the dogs as the most effective method for their population control.

Dogs are territorial animals. By killing dogs in one area, you invite dogs from other areas to establish themselves there. A natural population will always multiply to that number which can be sustained by that environment. The female will give birth to more number of puppies and the cycle is continued and the problem remains unsolved. By immunizing and neutering the dogs in that area, the fear of rabies and aggressiveness is greatly reduced. There are multifold advantages of sterilizing dogs.

• It reduces the chance of ovarian and prostate cancer.
• It makes them less aggressive.
• It eliminates heat periods. It makes them less likely to roam around and pick up fights.
• Dogs tend to become loners rather than move in a pack.

The Municipal Corporations pay people per head of dog killed. So dog-catchers scour the city for dogs to kill to make their money worthwile.

The Trivandrum City Corporation has been culling dogs for years. Attempts at sterilizations and anti-rabies vaccinations under the name of the Suraksha project has been publicized over the years without considerable effect. Lack of skilled veterinarians, lack of dog-catchers (though how many of them enthusiastically come forward for the Corporation’s catch-and-kill policy is amazing ), lack of interest, sincerity and dedication by the people involved in the program to see the ABC program as a means to a better end, lack of public awareness and education are some of the obstacles that deny these animals the right to live.

Why killing of dogs doesn’t work??

(from http://www.animalrescuekerala.org/why%20.htm)

Most states in India have been killing stray dogs for decades. The idea came from ‘developed countries’ without understanding the very different urban conditions in India. India has rubbish dumps and slum areas, which attract strays. Killing stray dogs has proved completely ineffective in controlling rabies or the dog population. This is because dogs removed are easily replaced.
Dogs breed around twice a year, having litters of several pups. Two dogs can become hundreds in not many years. They are also highly territorial, with each dog having its ‘own area’.
When a dog is taken away:
· His territory becomes vacant and dogs from around move in to occupy the area.
· Dogs continue to multiply, so the areas are soon filled again.
· Dog fights increase, because each time a new dog enters an area he is attacked by the dogs already in there.
· Dog fights continue to take place over mating.
· And during dog fights many humans get accidentally bitten.
· Rabies spreads to humans, due to none of the dogs being vaccinated.
· Rabies continues to spread because the dog-catchers are reluctant to pick up a rabid dog – so only healthy dogs get killed.
As long as rubbish dumps and slum areas continue to exist, dog-killing programmes will not work. The circle of an unstable, constantly changing, rapidly multiplying and rabies-carrying dog population will continue.
Government sources in India claim that over half of human rabies deaths are caused by unvaccinated pets, so the killing of strays has no impact on human rabies.

The Animal Rescue Kerala (ARK) was set up by Avis Lyons in the year 2002. For the past eight years she has been running an animal rescue centre in Kovalam where the ABC scheme has been implemented in addition to treating abandoned and injured pets. The shelter consists of about 60 kennels, a puppy house, a clinic with operation theatres, and an education centre. They propagate the ABC/AR (Animal Birth Control/Anti-Rabies) program in and around Kovalam.
They also try to find good homes for the dogs at the centre.
People who love animals and want to do their bit are always welcome to volunteer at the centre.
Avis has raised a voice for the animals of Kerala. She has strongly campaigned against the brutal killing of dogs, rabbits and turtles in Kerala.

The Olive Ridley Turtles nest at Kolavippalam beach, near Vadakara, and Thekkekadappuram, near Kanhangad. Vizhinjam is a major fish landing centre in Kerala and the chances of spotting an Olive Ridley landing on the fish harbour is very high. The turtles are openly available for sale at Vizhinjam even though they fall under the Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection), Act (1972), and listed in Appendix I of Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which prohibits the killing and sale of turtles and turtle products that occur in the Indian coastal waters. They are barbarically skinned alive and tortured for their flesh, shell and eggs.

Kerala is a gifted land – a land of diverse flora, fauna and charismatic megafauna – surrounded by the ugliness of politics and the rigid conservatism of its people. Voices raised for the animals of Kerala are ignored or repressed. The power of democracy is in the hands of the people, to make a change, to save our animals. If it doesn’t happen quickly, not even God can save God’s own country.

Image credit: Dey @ flickr

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