Bangalore and Mysore are facing one of their biggest civic challenges: stray dogs going on the rampage. At least two young children, a girl in January, a boy in February, have been mauled to death in the State capital by packs of dogs. And dozens of them have been attacked and bitten across the State in what is clearly a bad time of the year.
The civic administration in the two cities have reacted in the only manner known to bureaucrats—through a combination of panic and cover-my-ass. Street dogs have been caught and culled, many have been put to death through lethal injections, and a few have been given anti-rabies shots.
What should be done to tackle the street dog menace? Is it OK to kill dogs to keep the streets safe? Should the officials who turn a blind eye to unhygienic meat shops be brought to book? Is this all a plot by the land mafia to clear out pesky slums squatting on prime real estate? Or is the media hyping stray incidents out of proportion?
Above all, whose life is more valuable: that of the dogs or the humans who live and more around them?
I think Jairaj has correctly asked the NGO’s for some answers; no doubt that BMP is also at fault. Stray dogs needs to be killed period…
Forget the dogs for a while..we’ll get the later..we must gun for BMP officers who have sat on their fat, corrupt arse on the issue for such long time, lets chase the ngo’s who views seem to suggest that lives of mongrels are more imp than humans..and lets do what is takes to solve the problem…clear the meat shops, garbage (for which is what BMK pays and has a huge staff)..lets then chase the bloody dogs to death if they are still hang around..
May be we must unleash the dogs on the big talking Heakth Minister, BMP Officers and ofcourse the NGOs.
Before all this..here is a thought.. as a civil society we owe our apologies to the families of those two little ones killed in dog attacks..we must do something to convey our feeling – that we are sorry and we share their trauma – to the families who have to live with the memories of the avoidable tragedy for the rest of their lives..
It should be killed that’s it. I have had such experiences when I used to drive home late on two wheelers.
kolbaardu… ella muMDevannoo togoMD hOgi menaka gandhi mane compound oLage biTT barbEku… togoMD saakkoMDaadru saakkoLli.. illa kachaskoMD sattaadaroo saayli..
Any Indian town/village can never be bereft of dogs, cats, cattle, pigs, horses, monkeys, et al. Tomorrow if a cattle rams into someone, or a monkey creates mischief or a cat takes a sip of milk do they need to be eliminated? Please be aware that the world is not just for humans to live, but to lakhs of other creatures. There are ways to handle them. For instance, the sterilization programme has had a good impact with the dog population having decreased substantially.
Note that these two unfortunate incidents have happened where meat shops were around, and the dogs were in packs. The behaviour of dogs change significantly while in packs. The killer packs should be dealt with accordingly, but not all the strays. These two incidents have evoked a negative opinion on all stray dogs to a great extent. Some newspapers are carrying 2 full pages of report against stray dogs almost everday. There is hatred being fed into the minds of kids.
BMP has used this opportunity and the negative wave by going on a killing spree to compensate for their apparent lacking in other aspects of maintaining civic amenities. There are livewires (under BESCOM though), bad roads, open drains that have taken more lives. Any take on this? On the same day when the little boy was killed by the dogs, another boy somewhere off Kanakapura Road was killed by a live wire. Where was the media??? How can they be oblivious to this?? The media should stop festering hatred against the mongrels. The ‘learned’ should refrain from making any sadistic recommendations. And we, the people should start caring not just for ourselves and should think beyond our doorstep. People have unhealthy and uncaring attitude when it comes to solid waste disposal. The empty sites in the neighbourhood are used as dumping yard by many as if the property belongs to their father. And this is where the dogs along with cows and pigs scavenge for food and turn aggressive at times. Both BMP and MCC have failed miserably in managing garbage.
Is it OK to kill dogs to keep the streets safe? – There are lots of dogs that are ‘strays’ but still taken care of by people and in return these dogs play an important role in controlling thefts which unfortunately people are not taking cognizance of. This is something which the Police too agree with, especially the Commercial St Police Station, where two street dogs have been part of the Station informally. Our streets can NEVER be safe without one or two dogs.
Sterilisation, more dog pounds, elimination of diseased dogs, promotion of adoption, published information about dog behaviour are few methods that should be adopted.
arun my pal, just try returning home from workat 10+ and you can answer all the questions yourselves.
Comparing one cause of death to another and compromising isnt intelligent right? BESCOM live wires to dogs!
Last of all,if i heard it correctly only the fericioous ones are getting culled not all.
I quite agree with Arun. I heard somebody saying that the instances of parents sacrificing their young children in villages to appease their Gods and get instant fortune far outnumber the incidents of dog biting human beings to death. So the solution lies not in wholesale elimination of dogs, but conditions that turn them wild. Just as dogs near unhygenic meat shops are wild, the dogs survive on bakery items are the ultimate embodiment of humility. They can make any dog-hater into a dog-lover by their friendly gestures and friendly wagging of their tail. All for a loaf of bread.
In my opinion, children will continue to be in danger so long as meat shops throw their waste into open spaces and thus invite dogs. Killing all strary dogs serves no purpose. We must remeber, it is perhaps the same way we exterminated sparrows from Bangalore. All of us thought sparrows were a pest and devised ways to throw them out of our homes. There are no sparrows, and one has to travel several miles out of Bangalore to see them. There are also no birds in Bangalore because everyone wants flower-bearing trees in front of their houses and parks, and no one wants fruit-bearing trees. So most birds have deserted Bangalore to reach where they find their food. These days, it is difficult to spot birds even in Lalbagh and Cubbon Park. At this rate, we will soon have a day when our children will see dogs and birds only in zoos, and not around them.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/mar/05msg.htm#mb
Culling of any animal is only necessary when the populatin exceeds the limit….. a proper survey needs to be done for that….bacuse if we cull animals without the facts then the something happens like it happened in Surat…….an epidemic or plague…
Moreover, it is insane to cull like the way it is done everywhere.electrocution etc….the moethod should be painless.
In the case of bangalore, the unfortunate incidence does not proove that the entire population of stray has gone mad….. thee circumstantial evidence is not there to know How and what happened there….
IT CUD BE THAT THE DOGS WERENT STERILISED PROPERLY AND IN FRUSTRATION THEY ATTACKED…SO SHOULD THE DOGS BE KILLED FOR THAT OR THE BMC…
THE ISSUE IS A NATIONAL ISSUE AND NEEDS ATTENTION OF THE PRESS AND THE GOVT….THIS SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN CONSULTATION WITH EXPERTS…I AM SURE THERE IS MORE SENSIBLE SOLUTION THAN GOING ON A SPREE TO KILL ANIMALS…INHUMANLY
One way or the other, Bangalore seems to be going to dogs..
They should not kill Stray(Kanthri) naayi . Yaake andhre namma Vidhana Soudha oLagae haalavaaru NaayigaLu kithaadthirthaave ..Modhalu aa naayigaLanna hididhu thaLisabeku
Not only stray dogs ,they should get rid of pigs moving around all over Mysore. The pigs can spread deadliest of diseases which can kill hundreds of children in one go, as it happened in Ray Barelli a couple of years ago. Our repeated please with MCC hve fallen on deaf ears.
Definitely. I agree with ERR–we should kill all stray dogs and pigs. I am not sure what we can do with the stray donkeys and even stray horses (discarded after they went lame or suffered an injury of some sort).
That brings up an important question…what about feral cows and bulls?
I would say at this point, let us focus on stray dogs and pigs, who are dangerous to public health and safety.
Every single day of the year, a Toyota Qualis or a Tata Sumo or a Maruti Omni is reduced to a sheet of metal and all its passengers reduced to slices of of gory flesh. Have we heard anybody demand that all Qualises or Sumos or Omnis be taken off the roads because they cause human deaths?
It is certainly alarming that children should be so brutally attacked by dogs. But we need to find solutions that show we are human beings, not beasts who can think no better than the dogs which attacked the kids. In the name of protecting children, we cannot reduce the issue to a public show of bestiality.
We have two dogs at home. Even my nephew is having a stary dog at home along with other pedigree Dogs at home. But it does not mean we can allow stray dogs roaming the Roads.
Atmasakshi, Accidents are just accidents – they just happen. At times, because the driver is trying to avoid a stray dog too!! You can see at least one on Mysore-Bangalore High way everyday.
If innumerable Chckens/Cows are culled to stop disease, what’s wrong in killing ownerless dogs?
If you have no qualms being a non-vegetarian, what is rationale in showing special bias for Dogs? Is it because historically you don’t eat Dogs?
Certainly seeing mass grave of Dogs is chilling, but the choice has to be made – You simply cannot have a DOG which is not a pet owned by a responsible citizen.
That’s precisely my point. Just like the Qualises/Omnis/Sumos are involved in accidents, the children too have been involved in an accident nobody could foresee. It’s not as if the stray dogs without owners had a board-level meeting and decided to eat up a couple of pigs, at the rate of one a month. There must be a really good reason why only one City in the country seems to be facing the sudden threat, and why only one area in that City.
I don’t have a special bias for dogs; I have a special bias for all things living and breathing. We didn’t give the dogs life—we do not therefore have the right to take that life away. At this rate, we will be killing dogs, cows, sheep, goats, and whatever else comes in our way. How long before we deal with humans the same way?
now tell how to get rid of the pigs in Mysore. it’s disgusting.
In defence of Basava and Dogs
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Is the filth and garbage in the silky `silicon` city of Bangalore because of
the Dogs ? Are the unlicensed meats shops a dime and dozen in the city
because of the four legged animals ? The easily availabe and unhygienic meat and garbage in `the modern city` is a fatal combination which breeds a usually timid and innocent dog `a man eater.`
But the vociferous anti-dog protestors have no courage of concition to speak against the corrupt bureaucrats of BMC and Karnataka politicians. Well, the stray dogs become an easy target as they do not have a lobby or a voice… Round them up and kill them all mercilessly… It suits everyone’s bloated conscience.
I want to ask `the enlightened` citizens of Bangalore- Were stray dogs
accountable for the chilling killing of small children at Nithari in Uttar Pradesh ?. Were stray dogs accountable for rapes and murders taking place in Bangalore ? . Are Dogs responsible for acid attacks on girls in Karnataka’s school and colleges ? A day will come when the `literate` people in the `happening city` would blame stray dogs for keeping 28 crore Indians below povery line !
The plethora of Animal Care Organisations in the city should be hauled up for not taking up the sterlization programme with the required
honesty. Giving lip service to animnal care should be substituted by
genuine work.
The parents of innocent children who died should demand the arrest of the `violently corrupt BMP officials` who are now finding an easy way out of the problem by their cowardly killing of defenceless dogs.
Some of the `literate` writers have pointed to stray dog-less streets of
the developed countries and suggested ruthless culling of dogs. Pray,
How many of them have extraordinary homeless population sleeping on `foot paths`, How many developed counries have millions of people going to sleep without a day’s meal, How many of them have millions of half nourished children and how many… I can go on. If you have any answer to all these, then and then only ask for a spick and span Bagalore city minus stray dogs. Before that time, kindly leave `the best friend of the mankind at peace` ! `Basva`, the merciful` must be turning in his grave … I pray the good sense will prevail and people of the Science & Comuter city will strike at the root of the problem and not at the much abused….
Deepak Basavana
————
Here is what Ghandiji is said to have said ( i did not know about this when i wrote my comments . A detailed report can be read at Star of Mysore):
“A roving dog without an owner is a danger to society and a swarm of them is a menace to its very existence…. If we want to keep dogs in towns or villages in a decent manner no dog should be suffered to wander. There should be no stray dogs even as we have no stray cattle…. But can we take individual charge of these roving dogs? Can we have a pinjrapole for them? If both these things are impossible then there seems to me no alternative except to kill them.”
“Connivance or putting up with status quo is no Ahimsa, there is no thought or discrimination in it. Dogs will be killed whenever they are a menace to society. I regard this as unavoidable in the life of a householder. To wait until they get rabid is not to be merciful to them. We can imagine what the dogs would wish if a meeting could be called of them, from what we would wish under the same circumstances. We will not choose to live anyhow. That many of us do is no credit to us. A meeting of wise men will never resolve that men may treat one another as they treat rabid or stray dogs… We offend against dogs as a class by suffering them to stray and live on crumbs or leavings from our plates that we throw at them and we injure our neighbours also by doing so.”
Sorry i spelt Gandhiji wrongly !
Deepak B
It is not funny being bitten by a dog! Sure dogs do not have a lobby as also the vegetables we eat. They too are living things, right? So there is no end to inane arguments like these.
Besides people would like to have affordable meat–may be even illegal unhygienic variety as well. If the price is right? Let us tackle the stray dogs menace first and people like you and me can do a dharna in front of meat markets extolling the virtues of vegetarianism. Fair?
Just by invoking the big picture like Man’s Best Friend and shit like that it should be understood that people are in the harms way by allowing these rabid stray dogs to exist.
ERR Sir and Rama, why do you want to kill the pigs? — why don’t you legally go after the people who harvest those pigs? None of those pigs is stray or feral. They all have owners who finally come get them when it’s time. Nobody seems to have the political guts to take on the illegal pig breeders who are using Mysore’s public streets to do their business. Instead, everyone wants to curse the hapless pigs. How courageous!
Jeevarathna, Sir, I am highly skeptical of the sources used in that SOM article. I am still researching them. SOM’s site didn’t even give us the author’s name.
I think killing stray dogs is cruel and cowardly. Especially the way it is done — totally inhuman (slow electrocution, inadequate amount of rat poison, strangulation, clubbing on the head, etc. ) Simply terrible. Anyway, how can we trust our municipality to be not barbaric to stray dogs when they care so less for humans! So the question is, why would anyone in their right senses support culling when it is so easy to focus on a humane solution? For example, the government must, as part of its health programs, fund the sterilizations of stray dogs. The government needs to spruce up the veterinary hospitals, to begin with. Those hospitals, especially the one near Gayathri Bhavan, seem to be in terrible shape. If that’s too hard, at least the government must adequately support NGOs who are willing to sterilize dogs on a no-profit basis.
C/mon guys, we cannot lose our humanity because a few stray dogs are chasing us.
Nikhil,
I think the authorities are planning to eliminate only the aggressive stray dogs, not all stray dogs. In our culture, it is always a quick-fix.
I agree with your observations on pig farmers using areas of Yadavagiri as their own ranch or pig ranch, if you will. Far better it is for the citizens of Mysore if the government allots land for pig farmers on a lease basis or whatever and make sure good hygienic quality meat is supplied from the well-maintained porkers.
I have taken my dogs to the veterinary hospital near Gayathri Bhavan and it was always a sad experince!
DB – MCC, and now M’lore CC are killing all the dogs that they are catching. BMP is handing them over to the NGOs. It was horrifying to see heaps of dead dogs in Mysore. It was maarana-homa, as reported by Udaya news.
As I have said earlier, there are ways to solve this. The sterilisation has brought down the dog population in Blr. But the knee-jerk reaction and the big talking Health Minister has created a panic.
Now for years, the BMP and its Corporators have allowed everything illegal and when something unfortunate has happened in the CMC areas, all the dogs (sterilised and marked by chipping off the edge of the dogs’ ear) are being hauled up. All the money and time invested in sterilisation has gone waste. NO ACTION IS SEEN IN THE CMCs and I still see the odd Chandru Pork and Chicken STAAL doing good business near Marathahalli. Few dogs hang around as well.
The Govt should provide land for setting up of dog pounds and rope in few more NGOs. Maybe provide some kind of sops for adopting a stray. The Govt may even collect a meagre Rs.5 per house hold in the Cities of Blr, Mys, Mlr, etc for the upkeep of these pounds.
The latest that we are hearing is with a sudden exit of all the strays, Blr may even invite the dreaded plague as lot of wet and semi-wet waste generated by the homo-sapiens would lie unattended. Rodents will increase….the usual chain. It’s summer time and the right time for any outbreak as well.
No, MCC and now Mlr CC are eliminating every dog they are catching. It was horrifying to see heaps of dead dogs in Mysore, which was reported in Udaya News. BMP is handing over the dogs to the NGOs.
Doddi Buddi,
Dear Sir, Your are correct `it is not funny being bitten by a dog`. But you would also agree `it is not funny being beaten, abducted, killed or raped by Human beings too`. It happens all the time in Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkotta et etc. Should we then start killing human beings- the stray or other variety. We don’t do that. kindly, think and we will agree, perhaps.
Deepak Basavanna
Mass ABC of stray dogs is a scientific solution.