Last week we had a horrible story in the newspapers; a young lawyer from North Kashmir lost his battle for life in a hospital after having been mauled by street dogs. It is a chilling reminder of the danger that lurks always around us; in our streets, on our main roads, in the interiors of the populated areas – actually everywhere. We have had many children attacked by these street dogs, and badly wounded. Many elderly people became victims. In some cases we lost lives too, as in this latest case of the lawyer. It is now years of crying about this problem and no one there to listen, let alone respond. Dogs are all powerful animals that no authority here can confront! Let humans die, long live the dogs. Animal rights activists might cry about the means of eliminating the canine population, and we might escape that debate to focus on the problem more effectively. The international standards of rights for animals, the conventions that have been agreed upon, and an overall culture of not harming the non-human creatures, is all good to discuss and debate; let it remain there. It is not at all about poisoning dogs, it’s purely saving human lives. And if the administration cannot do that, we cannot take a dog to task, but someone must be held responsible for the people wounded, and lives lost.
Someone in the administration should be taken to task for endangering the lives of the people. If there are heaps of rubbish, and waste, on our roads and streets and they become breeding ground for street dogs, what are the municipal bodies doing here. A simple act of keeping a vigil on people who throw garbage on the roads can hugely contribute to the solution. If cameras are installed at the spots where huge dust bins have been placed, people can be stopped from taking the waste from their homes, and throwing it around the dustbins. If nothing else, those caught doing this uncivil act can be shamed by publicising their names. This would be a baseline deterrent and can yield good results. Let someone take the problem seriously, solution will eventually come forth.