JAVED IQBAL SHAH
(Political Analyst & Writer)
Sr Vice President
Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Kashmir)
E – mail : spca.kashmir@yahoo.co.in Mob : 9419007318 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 9419007318 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
The Hon’ble High Court’s timely initiative on a PIL in the hyped dog proliferation issue has not come a day too soon for the suffering masses. As inertia and chronic vested interest grip the civic agencies the High Court’s noble intentions originally aimed at giving reprieve to the public now risk being undermined by pursuit of private agendas and personal aggrandizement camouflaging it under the guise of “the action plan”. Throughout the many cities of India Animal Birth Control (ABC) and Anti Rabies Vaccine (ARV) has been found to be the only remedy to control dog proliferation and over population both. As per the latest appraisal the total cost of undertaking the ABC/ARV in Srinagar was officially estimated by AWBI and SMC to be no more than 3-4 crores from start to end. Already SMC has claimed to have spent around a crore past 15 days alone on a solitary ‘Pilot Pound’ and we are not even started yet. ABC Rules actually provide for this being done as a composite job through Animal Welfare, volunteer and other professional organizations equipped with the manpower and expertise on reimbursement of only actual expenditure by the Govt of India to avert and forestall the possibility of this turning into a money spinner for exploitation by vested interests and government officials. This is what seems to have unfortunately happened in Kashmir. The entire sterilization of strays in Kashmir might as well have been handed over to such organizations instead of creating a multi-billion sarkari establishment in perpetuity to the detriment of scant resources meant for issues of immediate burning public concern. As such there is no concept of multi-million‘Pounds’ with mammoth holding capacities of 500 to 1000 dogs each in ABC rules or animal welfare laws costing crores to the exchequer merely for sterilizing a dog that is to be released 2 days post-sterilization in any case? A different view would have prevailed if plans envisaged continued captivity.
The norm therefore, is to have a small city based shelter barely over a kanal of accessible land capable of housing a facility of about a hundred to hundred fifty odd kennels, some-trained para vets and a small operation theater quite like similar ABC centers in much bigger cities like Dehi and Mumbai? In fact the SMC deliberately concealed the fact of an existing and AWBI approved ABC center at its existing Tengpora cattle pound and when questioned in Court wrongly deposed that proximity of that pound to habitation was a constraint. By the way, and on that token did anyone hear of people dying in Delhi and Mumbai, because of ABC centers being located where they are, one is tempted to ask? This functional Tengpora ‘pound’ on about five kanals land good enough to house cattle and functional required a mere 5-6 lakhs for it to be fully operational– therefore the SMC’s disinterest?Which state or city in India has embarked upon such an elaborate multi crore ‘Quixotic’ luxury and for what? This has turned out to be a money spinner for the SMC and aided by some vested interests in the AWBI stretched to levels of absurdity by a self-seeking SMC that has now got emboldened to project a demand hundred times the initial and actual appraisals for sterilization? Coincidentally the ‘Pounds’ at SKUAST Shuhama have been identified to be constructed by an AWBI member who masquerades as an ‘expert’ although being a honorary AWBI member, ill trained for such technical intervention with colossal recurring financial implications for the State exchequer? Can anyone imagine a ‘Pound’ over 50 acres of land in Delhi or Jaipur or Mumbai, Madam ‘expert’ – yet are they not effectively managing their ABC programmes on prudent, more realistic and virtually shoe string budgets? Here the only reason SMC and AWBI are so keen to launch a perpetual large scale Dog Industry expedition is the amount of money involved and have literally gone for the kill of expending crores on an unviable, superfluous idea. ‘Pounds’ acquiring the hue of a multi-million business invariably breeds corruption and the real issues are obfuscated. Recent experience of ‘Pounds’ in Ahmedabad one twentieth the size of the Srinagar one has endorsed that and established that wherever this lucrative business of ‘Pounds’ has been allowed to flourish the real motives have been:
These pounds become regular source of income for the caretakers of these pounds who exploit this facility to earn money in any possible way. Huge funds which are allocated for construction, maintenance of these pounds go missing and are not accounted for. Sterilization money keeps flowing in. Food and medical supplies intended for the dogs go missing and the dogs end up suffering from hunger and illness. With the result that huge sums of money which could have been used in controlling rabies, population and welfare of humans and animals is going waste.
The idea of government running pounds is fundamentally wrong. It has no business doing the same.It should ask voluntary organizations and those interested in the welfare and compassion of animals to come forward and bear the onus as is the practice in all other states of India. The government has failed the women, children, disabled, elderly by eating the money allocated to those homes and their welfare. ‘Pounds’ of the kind SMC is extravagantly building with huge financial implications would not be any different even as an ABC center. For the ones camouflaging this as animal compassion, puppies and dogs in these ‘Pounds’ which die due to starvation or disease are eaten by other severely starved dogs. These places breed contagious diseases like parvo, carona, distemper, etc. Most of the dogs get infected and common scenes like defecation of bloody stools and bloody urine is visible. Once released into their original localities the carriers then spread these diseases into the parent environment. The doctors are not properly trained to neuter the dogs. Improper sterilizations are carried out with unsterile medical equipments. Sometimes the operations are done by helping staff. Dogs with intestines out of surgery cuts or blood oozing out are a common sight. Puppies as young as 2 to 3 months old are neutered. A large number of healthy dogs are euthanized clandestinely. Most of the dogs become aggressive because they have to fight for food and these are killed mercilessly. Even the injured or diseased, receive no medical help.Only very few dogs are released, so funds keep flowing for this facility. Dogs die of hunger, trauma, and torture. Interestingly the SKUAST students and interns are not permitted by Veterinary Council statute and regulations to perform any surgeries of the kind required.
The net upshot is that the actual problem persists, without a resolution, as funds go down the drain. Perhaps the real reason why the Srinagar Municipal Corporation in its first deposition before the High Court quoted a letter wherein it had admitted it didn’t have a paltry sum of Rs 20 lakhs to embark upon the ABC in Kashmir. Now in an abrupt u-turn it has suddenly discovered the crores in its coffers in tandem with AWBI and is too glad to part with them? The alacrity with which it has rushed to divest the exchequer of precious resource can be gauged from its revelation in Court that it had already spent close to a crore for constructing ‘Pounds’ at SKUAST Shuhama. The only silver lining to this SMC machination of creating a Dog Industry is the Hon’ble High Court’s pronounced intention of setting up an ‘Expert Committee’ comprising the Animal Husbandry department, the petitioners and all civil society stake holders and welfare organizations like the SPCA to come up with saner, practical and scientific alternatives instead.
( JAVED IQBAL SHAH )
Senior Vice President
SPCA Kashmir
