On the International Dog Day, let us begin with the story of Snoopy.
11-year-old Snoopy was brought to animal welfare NGO Friendicoes by his owner, who suddenly didn’t want him anymore. Not willing to deal with the baggage of her sick and blind dog, she preferred to just abandon him than carry the conscience of euthanising him.
Snoopy passed away soon after, rejected by his world, his family.
Huddled and hidden under a flyover, Friendicoes houses more than 400 sickly and abandoned dogs.
A lot of them share the same fate as Snoopy’s.
The demand for all things foreign in India is more serious than it is funny. That explains why a pet festival like Pet Fed in a metro city like New Delhi will invariably have a parade of pedigree breeds, which are extremely unsuitable for India’s tropical climate.
Beyond jolly Instagram photos and Facebook videos, there is an undocumented dark reality.
Some say that having a dog as a pet is the best thing that has happened to them, but for a lot more, dogs are a commodity to acquire. And like all commodities, the costlier it is, the higher the status of the consumer.
With little planning or knowledge about how to bring up a dog (which is anything but a commodity), owners land up with a living being that contracts diseases, gets older, and needs nurturing in the same way as a child.
The trouble comes when the once-glorious commodity needs care and racks up. Unable to provide their pets with either, owners often abandon dogs in parks, highways and forests.
When asked what the issues that a dog owner must be aware of before getting a dog are, Geeta Sheshamani, Vice President of Friendicoes said:
Pets kept in urban areas in Delhi require special care because the pollution that affects us also affects your pet, so you must be prepared for respiratory problems, asthma, allergy related issues but your commitment to your pet should carry you through. Saint Bernards often develop maggot problems, Dachshunds develop back problems, German Shepherds get ear problems... unfortunately in a city like this where there’s a lot of money to throw around, people just think of disposing a pet and acquiring a new one.
It is not only the street dogs that are treated with contempt and kicked around, some house pets are mistreated beyond imagination. Despite the maltreatment, when the dogs are abandoned, unable to overcome depression, they will themselves to death.
When owners bail out on their pets and drop them at shelters, Sheshamani says, they don’t even tell their pets’ names.
I can’t think of anything more awful, the animal is abandoned by the name he is familiar with, it’s a totally new level of being anonymous or homeless.Geeta Sheshamani, Vice President of Friendicoes
Dogs being extremely sensitive animals, an abusive past sometimes leaves a traumatic scar on their mental health, turning them into aggressive or extremely depressed dogs.
In April 2016, the government had imposed a ban on the import of dogs. But that is only a “bandage on a big wound”, Sheeshamani says.
The breeding of animals for commercial purposes is a thriving industry. With illegal transactions, no taxation, no laws, animals are turned into commercial units in puppy mills.
The government notification holds no value without proper laws or restrictions to keep animal breeders in check while they reap benefits unethically, breaking several laws in the process.
Animal rights might not look as appealing or fashionable as human rights, but human aggression and disdain towards defenceless and weak animals is also indicative of pathological violent behaviour that may resurface in abuse towards human beings.
The urgency of strict laws to defend animal rights cannot be stressed any further than this. It is not just human beings, but also animals that deserve the right to live decent lives.
Cameraperson: Shiv Kumar Maurya and Sheldon Healy
Video Editor: Hitesh Singh
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