All living beings feel, touch, love, live and have equal rights to live their lives with dignity. Although stray dogs cannot communicate with humans, their emotions can still trigger human minds. “They may not have words to let you know, But like you, they suffer, love and grow.” When humans lose humanity within themselves, it paves way to cruelty, heinousness and inhumane deeds. Animal cruelty is an offence under Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, and Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code, which is punishable with imprisonment and fine. The number of stray dogs worldwide has been estimated between 200 and 600 million. India has estimated 30 million stray dogs. India has the highest number of human rabies deaths in the world. The problems in India relating to stray dogs are:
- Stray dogs are prone to cruelty as there are no strict laws to penalize the wrongdoers.
- The people are vulnerable to aggressive dogs, whose bites could cause rabies, which leads to acute inflammation of the brain.
- The garbage is dumped in open, as dogs are scavengers, they get de-localised from their natural surroundings as become aggressive, which may lead to human-dog conflicts.
- Stray dogs are homeless and lack care and training.
- Strict legislation and harsh rules for those who inflict cruelty, injury and inhumane actions on the stray dogs. For this, new laws have to be evolved in India, as Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 is outdated now and needs to be amended to the present changed circumstances.
- There should be proper sterilization and vaccination of stray dogs and they should not be de-localised. This will not make dogs hostile and give them a peaceful environment to survive.
- Garbage has to be dumped properly and safely in bins rather than in open. This will prevent stray dogs to come near them and attack others.
- Instead of buying dogs, the people should be encouraged to adopt stray dogs as they need them the most. The love and care of the people can bring them a better and healthy life instead of a devastating life in the garbage.
Share on
×