“Unseen they suffer,
Unheard they cry,
In agony, they linger,
In loneliness, they die.”
This week in Telangana, a viral video made the rounds of the internet; it was a graphic depiction of 78 dead dogs heaped in a truck in Siddpet. This resulted in an outcry by the citizens of India, and the firing of an FIR. This mass culling was reportedly ordered by the municipality. This case is surely unique due to the fact that it was an officially sanctioned act of violence, but animal cruelty has long been an important issue in India and has historically been denied the importance it deserves.
To elucidate my point, one may refer to the instances below:
Last October, 19-year old Kuldeep Karotiya took a stray inside a public bathroom and raped it.
A housewife in the southern state of Karnataka smashed eight puppies on a boulder, to “teach their mother a lesson”.
In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, a man in an inebriated state poured acid on five new born puppies and their mother.
An ex-army man, who volunteered as the traffic marshal for the Gautam Budh Nagar police in Noida, got heavily drunk and stood on the neck of a stray dog while holding his hind legs with another foot for an hour, till it died.
Not only do these instances point towards a severe lack of humanity and respect for the life of other beings, but these people’s actions also point towards their deranged and sadistic natures. Citizens who are capable of inflicting such pain on the defenceless and harmless deserve no place in society, so it is fitting that there should be some deterrent against such actions guaranteed by our Constitution. And so there is a fine up to INR50, under the ancient Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960.
Fifty rupees: one cannot even buy a Uniball pen with that much money. If we think this will act as any kind of deterrent, we’re kidding ourselves.
Unlike other important social issues, animal cruelty is not very widely discussed in the media. Why? I’m guessing it’s because we feel it doesn’t directly affect us, and therefore we find no need to care. I’m betting most people didn’t even care enough to find out about animal abuse laws in our country. But I think everyone can agree that legislation in our country against animal cruelty needs to be drastically changed. In fact, an amendment to this law has been awaiting ratification from the Government of India for the past seven years: but no progress seems to be made.
Therefore, while the video circulating on the internet definitely is quite jarring to watch, it may do some good for our citizens: sensational news items such as this one will get a very large audience concerned about animal welfare in our country. It is shameful that we had to wait for such a horrifying event to finally wake up to the problem, but as they say: better late than never. The need of the hour is to spread even more awareness about this issue, so the nation can unite against lenient animal cruelty laws. It is the best way to make a change!
It’s not just about the legislation, mind you; it’s about the very attitude of people in our nation towards other indigenous species sharing our land. And it’s not just the strange stray animals to whom this disdain extends: it’s tame pets as well. So many of the guests who come into my house, for instance, are perfectly normal people otherwise: but the moment they see a toy-size Yorkie, of all things, cheerily greet them, they freak out and pretend as if the apocalypse has struck. Moments like that make me lose all respect for the person, sadly. We need to realise that animals are much smarter than we give them credit for, and just as worthy as us of life and of love.
To conclude, I would like to emphasise that animal empowerment, regardless of what today’s youth seems to think, doesn’t actually mean turning vegan and adopting a family of rescue puppies. Animal empowerment often gets a bad rap because a lot of people find it unnecessarily extremist, because all visible animal activists, such as Instagram influencers, portray it as an uber-glam lifestyle built around taking care of one’s ten puppies and having never tasted milk. The reality, though, is that by making small changes in the way you act and interact with animals, each one of us can contribute positively towards building a safer future for these defenceless creatures.
In fact, dogs are one of the most loyal beings on Earth and are capable of deep love and territorial feelings towards humans. The cruelty that humans inflict on dogs, on the other hand, is far greater than will ever be even within a dog’s capacity. We need to recognise that dogs are sentient beings, and treat them as such: that’s all it will take to stop this nuisance. It seems like a simple enough ideology, but it will do wonders for how dogs are treated in our country.
So maybe we should all take a minute to step back and think, before freaking out the moment we see a stray dog on the street? After all, what harm can it really do to us? It has no reason at all to attack us, and there is, therefore, no reason to fear an attack from it. Further, if stray dogs can dauntlessly strut around humans, in light of the torture we inflict upon them, we should also have the courage to not be afraid of them.