The Supreme Court of India has ordered the stray dogs of Delhi, the capital city, to be shifted to shelters and animal activists have taken to the streets in protest. Apparently, there aren’t enough animal shelters in Delhi, or entire India for that matter, to accommodate the magnanimous number of stray dogs we have in this country. This naturally means that the animal shelters will be overcrowded if the judgement is implemented, and the dogs will die a slow, malnourished death. Animal lovers aren’t having it, and social media is flooding with posts against the court’s decision, calling it inhumane.
As inconsiderate and under-informed it might sound, the decision is not inhumane according to me. There is a recorded statistic that states that India has 3.7 million cases of dog bites annually, each of which poses a series threat of the victim being infected with rabies. Rabies is one of the deadliest and the worst diseases on the planet that cannot be cured once the symptoms start to show, and the symptoms don’t start to show until its too late. The death is not peaceful either.
While the rate of rabies is arguably low in India, the sheer number of cases of dog bites, children being harmed by street dog attacks, the unhygienic conditions in cities owing to their presence has resulted in the Supreme Court announcing this verdict. No, the dogs don’t deserve to be mistreated and killed – but humans don’t deserve to be put through the threat of stray dog attacks either. Funnily enough, the animal activists protesting against the judgement are noted to be from upper middle class or richer sections of the society, who are not exposed to the darker side of towns and cities where the real risks of stray dog attacks dwell. The middle and economically modest sections of the society are very much in support of this decision to clear the streets of Delhi from stray dogs.
I would say that instead of protesting against the decision, it would be wiser and more reasonable to start a movement to raise funds and build more animal shelters, medically sterilize streets dogs and perhaps get them adopted. Why the uninformed sections of the country are protesting against the cities being cleaner and safer is a question I cannot seem to find an answer to. Yes, we all are emotionally connected to how wonderful dogs are as pets, but we have also seen the other, rabid side that does not make them safe whatsoever. So no, the decision is not inhumane in any regard. Perhaps a little uninformed; but not inhumane. I hope that at least a refined version of the judgement is implemented – perhaps mass sterilization, shifting to shelters in limited capacity – or so. But I hope the judgement is not revoked entirely owing to the creamy-layered protests on social media. That would be a loss for the less privileged sections of the society to endure.
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