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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS
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MONTH: March 2006
ABC isn’t rocket science, Visakha SPCA founder Nath tells Indian missile program architect Kalam
Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam meets
Pradeep Kumar Nath. (Visakha SPCA)
VISAKHAPATNAM––“ In anticipation of your visit to our city,” Visakha SPCA founder Pradeep Kumar Nath told Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on February 13, 2006, “Visakhapatnam municipality ordered and funded the killing of dogs along the parade route. Thirty dogs were murdered, and of these, 29 had been vaccinated and sterilized by our Animal Birth Control program.
“Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident,” Nath continued in a letter hand-delivered to Kalam. “The municipality has on numerous occasions funded this sort of activity. Killing dogs is illegal. Just as important, it is not effective. A murdered dog leaves a space, and into that space will soon come another dog, who will have not been vaccinated or sterilized, and is more aggressive.”
Nath explained to Kalam, who pioneered the Indian missile program, that the Viskha SPCA has vaccinated and sterilized more than 20,250 dogs; has euthanized 4,396 dogs who were believed to be dangerously violent, rabid, or otherwise terminally ill; has achieved a 75% reduction in the number of pregnant female dogs at large in Visakhapatnam, with an 80% reduction in the number of puppies; and has reduced dog bite complaints from 100 a day to 10 per day.
“Finally,” Nath said, “since the Visakha SPCA has taken over the dog-catching, we have seen a reduction in the number of dog-related complaints from 60 per day to only 2 per day.”
One need not be a rocket scientist to appreciate the results of well-managed ABC programs, but People for Animals founder Maneka Gandhi drafted Indian satellite tracking system builder Chinny Krishna several days earlier to present a similar case to the Wayanad District Legal Services Authority in Kerala.
As longtime head of the Blue Cross of India, founded by his parents, Krishna also pioneered the ABC program concept in 1964, 33 years before it became national policy.
“No sterilisation or dog-killing has taken place in Wayanad and in many other Kerala districts in the last six years,” wrote R. Madhavan Nair of The Hindu. However, on December 22, 2005, Nair recounted, “the Wayanad District Legal Services Authority directed the killing of all stray dogs if local bodies failed to comply with the ABC program rules. The Animal Husbandry Department told the Authority that local bodies did not have the resources to comply.”
Said Mrs. Gandhi, “The court in Wayanad cannot do this. There are federal laws and five High Court judgements saying that stray dogs have to be sterilized and vaccinated.”
A similar confrontation developed in Arunachal Pradesh last summer, in the extreme northeast of India, after Papumpare deputy commissioner B. Gadi ordered residents of Itanagar, the state capital, to keep their dogs indoors.
“After August 12,” Gadi ordained, “if any stray dog is found on the road, the police will shoot it. In the absence of any society working for the stray dogs,” Gadi insisted, “we have no option other than shoot them.”
The order was rescinded at the last minute after journalist Azam Siddique distributed copies of the relevant laws to public officials and fellow reporters.