Terrorising helpless street dogs won’t impress Narendra Modi

A volunteer feeding street dogs

The Indian prime minister is said to be an animal lover. He recently visited  Anant Ambani’s animal refuge, clearly demonstrating his love of animals. But  our misguided (and clearly misinformed) government is attempting to clear our roads of community animals in an attempt to give an impression of …… what? Prosperity and development?

Sri Lanka wants to get rid of street dogs ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit – but India has an estimated 70 million stray dogs, or more. 

The Indian prime minister is said to be an animal lover. He recently visited  Anant Ambani’s animal refuge, clearly demonstrating his love of animals.

But  our misguided (and clearly misinformed) government is attempting to clear our roads of community animals in an attempt to give an impression of …… what? Prosperity and development? 

The ‘People’s President’ has forgotten his election promises and proved himself to be no better than his predecessors. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “The progress of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”  Someone should remind our president of  Mahatma’s words ahead of PM Modi’s visit, instead of trying to annihilate these hapless animals, most of whom have been sterilised, neutered, vaccinated and are 95 % human friendly. 

Rescue Animals Sri Lanka is an organisation which has been feeding street animals for over 40 years both in Colombo and the suburbs. In our experience, we have not yet encountered  a dog  so hostile as to pose a danger to people. These dogs are not aggressive. On the contrary, they are timid as they are usually at the receiving end of human aggression. In our daily feeding round of  over 200 dogs,  we have never  faced aggression from a single animal.

Doesn’t the government of Sri Lanka have more urgent and pressing issues to handle than clearing the streets of  dogs  ahead of a foreign head of state’s visit?

The estimated stray dog population of Sri Lanka is approximately 2.1 million. A significant number of this figure includes abandoned animals. RAS receives an average of 15–20 calls daily from around Sri Lanka requesting us to take in dogs and pups who have been dumped by their owners due to old age,  owners relocating, going overseas, or the rising COL which makes it impossible for them to feed their pets.

On another note, playing the election trombone of appeasing  villagers and farmers by arming them with shotguns to fire at elephants, peacocks, deer and monkeys is regressive to say the least, and displays the sheer ignorance of those who govern us. There are scientific methods to address all these issues. 

Experts in these areas have long tried to convince successive governments that shotgun methods such as elephant drives and relocating monkeys to a far off island where there is no vegetation for them to feed on, hoping they will die ultimately is both cruel and contrary to the precepts of any religion. Indian experts in controlling the monkey population have been spoken to,  and they have expressed their willingness to come here and demonstrate the latest techniques via laparoscopy (using laparoscopy surgery) to our government, but the latter has displayed no interest in going about this in a scientific manner, going instead for the quick fix.

Hopes ran high prior to the elections that the People’s President would address a number of issues that have burdened Sri Lankans, starting with the COL. The appointment of the prime minister was greeted with much enthusiasm as she was perceived as a woman of intelligence and education, and someone who had a concern for animals and nature. Unfortunately,  this perception has fallen by the wayside. 

The NPP’s mayoral candidate has claimed that the clearance of the dogs has nothing to do with the government but needs to be discussed  with the Colombo Municipal Council – but then,  as she happens to represent the CMC,  she should be able to handle this thorny issue in a more sensitive manner.       

Mr. President --  The COL is soaring, the education system needs a drastic overhaul, your ministers are archaic in their way of thinking and their behaviour, the whole world is moving towards a greener environment, being in harmony with nature, acknowledging  the fact that animals and humans need to co-exist. Please step into the 21st century, and protect our wildlife and street animals. What’s very disturbing is that you are all inaccessible, deaf to the pleas of environmental and animal rights activists, and seem to be living in a self satisfied and smug little bubble. With actions such as this,  the government looks backward and misinformed, and won’t convey a good impression to the Indian prime minister, no matter what he may say (or not say) in public. 

RESCUE ANIMALS

SRI LANKA TRUSTEE 

ANUSHA DAVID