Kerala's plans to get rid of stray dogs could bite it in the butt

Gone are the days when dog was man’s best friend. For the past few weeks dogs are in the news thanks to horrific stories. You hear of dog fight clubs in Haryana and Delhi where pedigreed dogs are made to fight with each other, and the loser is killed off by the owners. In the supposedly civilised colony I live in, emails often float around of residents saying that they have guns and will shoot any stray dogs they find in the colony. Recently three stray dogs have simply disappeared. Every day on Facebook and Twitter you read of various dogs who have been beaten up by some random person with rage issues. Most recently, China’s Yulin festival took place, in which domestic dogs are tortured, skinned alive and eaten – in what is commonly known as the Lychee and Dog Meat Festival (a deadly combination of flavours, if ever there was one). India, never one to be left behind in international news, has found its moment in the sun as well thanks to an announcement made by the Kerala government. Kerala is supposedly suffering from an increased number of dog bite incidents. Over the last 8 months, 40,000 dog bite cases have been reported. The Chief Minister, Oomen Chandy, has been pro-active and called an all-party meeting in which he is reported to have said, “The government is committed to protecting the people. We will take strict measures to control the stray dog population. The veterinary department has been given instructions to ensure sufficient vaccination”. [caption id=“attachment_2352538” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Stray dogs. Image from Reuters.[/caption] That is a very good step. But there’s a caveat. Troublesome and aggressive dogs will be euthanised. Local bodies will identify which dogs need to be vaccinated and which need to be euthanised. Maybe we’ve totally missed the fact that Oomen Chandy is India’s answer to Mao Zedong. If Mao could have his Great Sparrow campaign, Chandy can have his Great Dogs campaign. That Mao’s campaign to eradicate his four identified pests - sparrows, flies, mosquitoes and rats - ended in an environmental disaster, has escaped Chandy. Mao’s Little Red Book obviously didn’t tell him that sparrows eat insects which damage crops. Once the sparrows were gone, the crops started being destroyed by insects. Ultimately, faced with massive crop damage, China had to import sparrows from the Soviet Union, and it finally replaced sparrows with bed bugs in the four-pest Axis of Evil. That euthanizing dogs which are not mortally ill or critically wounded is against the law, seems to have also escaped Chandy’s notice. According to the Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals Act and the Animal Birth Control Rules of 2001, only dogs which are mortally ill or wounded can be euthanised. As reported in Scroll, “Dogs suspected of having rabies must be captured and isolated. If rabies is confirmed, they must be allowed to die natural death in isolation. ‘Any animal that is not suffering from an incurable disease cannot be put down,’ emphasised Major General (retd.) RM Kharb, chairperson of the Animal Welfare Board of India”. But when you’re an elected representative of the people and a chief minister to boot, you don’t need to worry about the law. Especially when it comes to getting rid of a species which isn’t going to vote for you. Kerala is not the first state with a perceived dog menace – and I use the word “perceived” because according to CNN, “Dr. Manilal Valliyate, director of veterinary affairs for PETA India, said that many of the alarming figures on dog bites circulated by the Indian media should be taken with a pinch of salt. ‘Even if it’s a snake, dog or cat bite, everything is put into one; (they’re) not categorized if it’s a stray or domesticated animal, or with rabies or not’.” Chandy’s solution for the dog problem comes with a slew of problems. One, as pointed out by others as well, who will identify which dogs are troublesome or aggressive and how will they do so? Will they approach the dogs and kick them and see whether they bite? Or do Kerala’s local bodies have some great ESP skills which we are unaware of? Two, dogs are by nature territorial, survive in groups or packs and guard the areas they live in. If you remove one pack of dogs, another one will migrate to the same area and take their place. That is the law of the natural world. Therefore, euthanising dogs is hardly a permanent solution. Unless, of course, wise man Chandy is planning on exterminating all stray dogs in Kerala. Three, there is something known as a balance of nature which was also obviously not taught to Chandy and his merry band. Every animal has a purpose. In cities in India which struggle with waste management, stray dogs, like crows, help control the number of other scavengers in the area, whether it be rats or cats. If Chandy doesn’t want a spike in other scavengers who are kept under check by the presence of dogs, he had better have a fabulous waste management and disposal plan in place for when the dogs disappear. Also it always helps to look at other states and cities to see how they’ve reacted in similar situations. Jaipur controlled a similar situation with dogs, through vaccinations and birth control. Kerala could take a leaf out of their book. And if the government does not have the time or wherewithal to implement a long-term animal birth control programme it could give the mandate to an NGO or a private organization with the passion and the expertise. Jaipur did and it worked. I understand that many people feel that humans are more important than the animals they live alongside. If any animal is causing a nuisance, they should be gotten rid of. But while planning their eradication would it really hurt to try to tackle the problem in a humane manner which also makes practical sense? If Kerala does go ahead with the culling of stray dogs though, I hope for all its anti-dog residents and its government, that the state understands it will be swamped in garbage and run over by other scavengers. Then it might understand that turning Man’s Best Friend into Public Enemy Number 1 comes at a price Oomen Chandy’s voters might not be that happy to pay.