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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: May 2007

Kerala orders dog purge

 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM--Kerala state minister for local self-government Paloli Mohammed Kutty less than 10 days before the end of April 2007 "directed the heads of local self-government institutions to take effective steps to end the stray dog menace before May," The Hindu reported on April 22.

The order followed a Kerala High Court ruling that local governments have the authority to kill dogs to end a perceived threat to public health and safety, despite the decade-old national policy, never fully implemented, favoring Animal Birth Control.

Kerala, officially 25% Islam and 19% Christian, also with a strong Communist party, is among just two states of India where cattle slaughter is legal, has a large cattle export industry, and is perhaps the only state where resisting mainstream Hindu cultural dominance has political currency.

Cattle slaughter and animal sacrifice were already political flashpoints in Kerala long before the advent of ABC, which soon became a comparable target.

Political exploitation of cultural divides appeared evident in the rhetoric on March 30, 2007, as the Thiruvananthapuram municipal corporation council heatedly rejected a recommendation from People for Animals founder Maneka Gandhi that the city should back a four-year-old ABC program conducted by Animal Rights Kerala.

Mrs. Gandhi, who was federal minister for animal welfare under the Hindu nationalistist Bharatijia Janata party, alleged that killing dogs is in violation of the federal Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, a contention soon afterward rejected by the Kerala High Court.

Mrs. Gandhi "also alleged that a senior Thiruvanathapuram official was intimidating animal welfare groups opposing the slaughter," reported The Hindu, and "demanded that the official in charge of the program be shifted."

Continued The Hindu, "Welfare standing committee chairman Rajendra Das alleged that People for Animals and Animal Rights Kerala have links with companies manufacturing anti-rabies vaccine.

Poojappura councillor Maheswaran Nair called for subjecting their accounts to audit. Mayor C. Jayan Babu said there was no question of signing an agreement with ARK, which is facing criminal charges for assaulting corporation officials," after founder Avis Lyons on February 10, 2007 confronted dogcatchers who were impounding vaccinated and sterilized dogs.

Lyons in September 2006 trained 25 dogcatchers to participate in a purported Thiruvanathapuram municipal ABC program, but the program never started.

Instead, the dogcatchers "used all the information we had given them to go out and kill all the dogs in Thiruvanathapuram and surrounding areas, including our sterilized dogs," Lyons alleges.

Paid per dog caught, the catchers subsequently hired themselves out to catch and kill dogs in other cities, including Bangalore.

Ironically, vaccinating street dogs to eradicate the rabies reservoir is much less profitable for vaccine makers than selling post-exposure vaccine for use in treating humans who are bitten.
Pointed out Compassion Crusaders Trust founder Debasis Chakrabarti, during a similar debate in Kolkata, "Since it costs only 25 rupees to vaccinate a stray dog against rabies, compared with 1,500 rupees to vaccinate a human, it is more advisable for the sake of humans to spend the money on vaccinating dogs."