Column

Some forty dogs were poisoned by a man in Navi Mumbai recently. They were strays, and the murderer had been schooled by our penal code to remember that it is all right to kill, as long as strays are not human beings. All over India, there are plenty of vagrants: shoe-less, home-less, and soul-less. They are vulnerable to all kinds of abuse and suspicions, but at least they enjoy a degree of protection against murder.

But dogs, for most people, tend to be either stray devils who wantonly chase night-time motorists and motorcyclists, causing some of the latter to take a fatal fall. Or they tend to be exotic creatures of pedigree who revel in rare pampering. But few appreciate that dogs, of either variety, are in the end lives which when nurtured can be the source of love, meaning, and endless joy.

I know one set of people who believe the contention without reservation: the police. I was in a veterinary hospital recently where I saw a policeman lavishing desperate love to his dying German Shepherd. I know exactly how he must have felt when his dog died; I lost my beloved Snowy the same day, at the same hospital. I delighted in the winsome love of my dog – who had been my friend, protector, and child for more than eight years –for only several hours a day. But a police dog spends every minute of his or her life with the handler. If I was gutted by the loss of Snowy, I knew the intensity of emotional erosion the policeman would have been going through.

Indeed, some dogs are as brave and selfless as a police officer or a soldier. Some police departments in the US use the same distress cry for a dog injured in action as they would for a human partner: “Officer down! Repeat, officer down!”

Anyway, what makes a dog special is not the pedigree or the work it has accomplished in its lifetime, but its infinite capacity to be our understanding, worthwhile ally.

Centuries-old history of domestication has invested dogs, even strays, with a purpose that can be harnessed by us. Some ten years ago, the Delhi police suggested adoption of strays as an important means of combating crime. Some of the apartment complexes that accepted the idea are today being guarded by the second generation of canine security force. The affable sentinels, who work for only two modest meals a day, have learnt to recognise every member of their apartment complex!

When I visited Bangalore this week, I found many residents’ groups have a system through which individual members adopt strays, feed them, train them, and pay for their sterilisation. This keeps stray population in check and the neighbourhood safe, without alpha-male aggression charging down the road to devour a passing motorcyclist. These solutions seem both rational and practical to me. Will Mumbai care to consider these options? Or is pesticide too tempting?
raghu@dnaindia.net