The Boom, The Bust, and What Remains
We Must Start the Fire
A few days ago, Rajashree Khalap of the Indian Pariah Dog Fan Club made a post about the brutal killings of Indian dogs in Meerut.
This is a worrying phenomenon that has been raising its ugly head in India in recent times. A few years ago, the administration in Bangalore, under pressure from its electorate, went on a rampage – ordering the massacre of thousands of street dogs in the state. Disturbing videos of the incident still do the rounds of the Internet, and if you have the stomach for it, look out for the Bangalore dog killings on Youtube.
You will not just find the revolting video on the site, you will also find insults made to the country in general by the Youtube netizens that you would like to protest, but will be unable to because they are completely justified.
This incident was repeated a year later in Mumbai, and now it has happened in Meerut. In the interim, there has been similar incidents in other parts of the country as well – most notably in Kolkata where certain sickos took advantage of power cuts and kept beating up dogs and leaving them for dead in dumpsters. This continued until the city’s leading newspaper, The Telegraph reported the incident.
We too had blogged about it on Paws Awhile. Incidents like these make me wonder whether the Indian race is in a state of reverse evolution. They have started to hunt in packs, and unfortunately their most easy prey has been man’s best friend.
I know a lady, who, having lost the very last member of her family at a relatively young age, started taking care of the dogs in her locality. That was her solace, but such is the nature of man that every time a dog barked at someone in the locality they would turn up at her place warning her of dire consequences. This continued until one day a large mob from the locality broke into her home and beat her up badly along with the dogs.
Fortunately, some of the city NGO’s stepped in on her behalf and filed a case against the prominent members of that mob in the city court. The lady won the case. The court ordered the authorities to make provisions for her to care for the dogs without being threatened or harmed. The mob has backed off, albeit dicontentedly. But for how long?
I myself have had people come up to my home and warn me of not feeding or arranging treatment for dogs in my locality. They are trying to build a general consensus against my family, they say. It’s not uncommon – such threats, but what is worrying is that they get bolder every time.
So what can be done about it? At one time there was a boom in the number of people campaigning for, adopting, supporting and raising their voices in favor of Indian street dogs. Blogs like Indian Pariah Dog, Paws Awhile, Dog Spot are all results of this boom.
Then came the bust. People started losing interest. Take this blog for example. Statistics say we have around 150 to 200 regular subscribers. Analytics say that almost all of our subscribers follow our posts quite regularly. However, 90% of them don’t even care to leave a comment.
If we were to organise a walk and a rally to raise awareness about INDogs, how many of you, our readers, would respond?
This, my dear friends, is what is left behind – Apathy. And it is now purely up to you to decide whether you want a ring-side view of the steady persecution of the Indian dog, or whether you want to descend in the arena and be one of the gladiators in the battle to save them.
The choice is yours, and I am looking at all of you… still hopeful.
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