As the debate on dog menace gains momentum in the vernacular press, the canines, it seems, get more provoked and irritated. The adrenalin in them has doped them to break all records of deadly attacks on humans. They exhibited their “martial race” invincibility when last week in a single day they mauled 51 people mostly children in the capital city Srinagar. From conflict zone Kashmir have morphed into dog zone. Here dogs relish human flesh and frolic in chasing little tender souls to drowning Jhelum or casualty ward in SMHS. The paradise on earth has become hunting ground for the canine neo-Maharajas.
 Don’t shout, don’t cry, don’t scream, even don't murmur. That will disturb the sleep of the Maharajas ruling claim. We are in a fairy land where anything unimaginative can happen: humans demoted to canine fodder and amputated to torso. The canine promoted to dog-ma’ata sanctity. I am anticipating dog courts with dogs sitting in judgment sand pronouncing verdicts, convicting anyone they sniff still talking humanely, of heresy. After all Kashmir has to be purged off “violence”. And people made flag-bearers of ahimsa. Gandhi has to be glorified in having his message of non-violence (ahimsa) enforced to the extent that even canines would feel ashamed of their tyranny to see humans allowing them to continue with their biting spree. Perhaps that is the sole curable prescription authorities in Delhi and Srinagar have stuck to rid people in Kashmir of this dog menace. They say Gandhian non-violence won India independence and this ‘philosophy’, they believe, would enable us to “capture heart and mind” of the straying army of dogs. It is, they say, a matter of making the dogs “guilty conscious”. What if the number of dog bites in the capital city alone has swelled from 4230 in 2010 to 7257 in 2011. What if the maximum cases of dog bites are category-3 bites considered deadliest among the canine attack. But how long Kashmiris, tied to the chains of this dog inviolability attitude of the state, would wait for them to get remorseful of their ferocious attack and declare a truce and have ‘peace and normalcy’ restore on their own conditions. When they will get exhausted and announce their own ‘demilitarization’. When their patrons (animal-rights activists) have given them to get ‘mentally and emotionally’ recharged in the dog-zone, would fold up declaring the last seed of resistance and challenge to dog-supremacy is all over.
 Surprisingly both the ‘main-stream’ and ‘off-stream’ groups have maintained a culpable silence on the war the canines have waged against Kashmiris, in particular their little children. Insulated in indifference and living in their cozy chambers they perhaps are deluded into believing that dogs bite selectively. In all it brings them a pleasure, vicarious though.
 There are 8 city MLAs all belonging to the ruling National Conference led government but sadly, however, none of them has uttered a word about the horror dogs have spread in Kashmir. The opposition PDP is seized with only one ambition: criticize the government and let its mouth drool in anticipation of the coalition rupturing to throw a miracle in its favor. Mufti family’s silence on dog terror reflects they too are on the side of the dogs. And don’t want to annoy them, least challenge their writ.
 At times of collective disaster even birds and beasts (dogs included) think collectively and act collectively. But here we have been denuded of that commonality. Those who matter in power or without power, both are apathetic to the trauma defenseless people have been forced to undergo. So dogizans of the “paradise” have been left at the mercy of the canines. In this struggle of survival.
World ethics defend the primary and foremost right of self-defense. After all when ferocious stray dogs have the option of pre-emptive strikes – even when there is no threat from humans to their “honor”, “integrity” and “life” – why cannot we the not-howling, not biting vulnerable weak party have the same right to defend themselves? And the route to self-defense in facing this menace goes through culling and poisoning. Since the protests and repeated beseechings haven’t ruffled feathers in the power-house, let us take implementing these life-saving measures without waiting for the sanction from authorities. You can’t talk love in time of epidemics. When we are virtually in siege by the dreaded canines, fertilization like theatrics loose sense and substance.

(Feedback at zainagiree@yahoo.co.in)

Lastupdate on : Thu, 3 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 3 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 4 May 2012 00:00:00 IST