Man-Eaters lurk again!!
How many children need to die with such attacks before we do something about it?
A question comes to my mind when man-eater stray dogs kill another victim, this time a four year old from BEML layout on Wednesday! Manjunath was playing hide-n-seek with his friends when he was attacked by a pack of dogs. He later died in hospital on Thursday. This is the third incident in which a child has been bitten by stray dogs in the BEML layout recently. Illegal meat shops next to the locality dump waste meat just behind the layout, attracting dogs in large packs.
Surprisingly, our health minister says that as land belongs to BEML, it is therefore outside the jurisdiction of the Bangalore City Corporation. What a fantastic logic, is he saying that BEML is now in ‘dog breeding’ business and country’s governance is limited to public places and do not have jurisdiction on private lands, businesses?
unfortunate incidence … i hope authorities take appropriate actions ASAP, instead of giving illogical reasons.
Down with Shameless poli(pollu)ticians & Money minded officers.There are 1001 ways to control the street dogs but everyone is doing nothing even though the street-0igs has become social evils.
those meat shops need to be closed now, unless they take some other measures to dispose off meat. maybe they can send it off to bannerghatta park instead of dumping it around.
recently at a meet with commisioner on this issue, the ‘dog lovers’ outshouted everyone else. Every single one of them should be made to shout those exact same slogans in the face of the unfortunate mother of this unfortunate child. also please bring maneka mem to talk to this mother.
WHAT are NGOs upto? They prevent the BMP from culling dogs. In todays Deccan herald. Suparna Ganguly of CUPA says “Parents should not allow their children to play where dogs are loose”. What nonsense logic is this??
There should be no restriction on capturing dogs. Ideally, there should be a bounty on each dog captured to encourage the public to capture dogs. If any dog lover really wants these dogs alive, let him/her keep it in his/her own house. If nobody wants the dog, kill it – the life and well being of humans is far more important than the dog.
Any person protesting against culling of dogs must think about the pain of parents who lost their children
Down with Shameless poli(pollu)ticians,Money minded officers & Blade NGO’s of Bengalooru.Today street-dogs has become a social -evils & there are 1001 ways to control the street dogs but unfortuentely no one is doing to sort out the issue.
It had become a drama when someone dies by dogs Govt will give 1 lakh & wash there hands, Is the life of a kids is so cheap as less has 1 lakh ?
copy that george.
lets see if these ‘NGOs’ have their monies where their mouth is. if they are so concerned for these animals they should organize methods to humanely catch them and then put them in a place they build with their own monies.
We need to catch all the man eating dogs and ensure atleast 1 is dispersed per politicians house. May be they will learn politics and stop eating people directly.
Shame on you government, kids are falling prey.
It is about time that Bangalore had its streets free from this dog menace. Since the first incident where a girl died after dogs attacked her, it is indeed become scary to venture out on the roads be it for a morning walk or just to the shop down the road.
Its unfortunate that the dogs have targeted Kids on both these occasions. The administration should now atleast take this dog menace seriously & eliminate it completely.
Speechless, this seems like all other issues being identified for action but ill-managed as usual. Far more outcry and few PIL’s is what seems the need of hour for any action from authoritis. All taxpayers money will be used to mellow down the victims with ‘compensation’ and no ‘punishment’ would be charged to those who are responsible. Truely, this country going to dogs!!
We should take all the stray dogs and leave them at Animal rights activists like Suparna Ganguly. They and their kids live in safe houses. The dogs are terrorizing the streets and what BS they are talking. In countries like USA, you don’t see such street dogs and the government doesn’t give a damn when it comes whether it is human beings or dogs, their laws are always to protect people .
To all the Animal Lovers.
Dogs have life and so do all of us.If u see a human being biting and attacking a dog,shoot that person at the spot.if you see a dog attacking a human being shoot that dog. Now its all equal u c.
I believe that the minister must be congratulated for making such a great statement. Since the land belongs to BEML so Bangalore Corporation, the lowest level of governance has no jurisdiction. Fine, by logical conclusion that means, since my house belongs to me, then the Governement does not have any jurisdiction inside it. So, if I go and commit a crime and stay inside the boundary of my house, the Police ( they are part of Government machinery and follow the same laws as Bangalore Corporation) have no right to arrest me. Furthermore, anybody can demand taxes only for places on which they have jurisdiction, so no taxes guys.
It might look like insensitive lecture, but really guys what do we ourselves do to curb such menaces. What is stopping you from killing the stray dogs and yes, if anybody cribs about that, then we can just take the dog and put it inside their houses.
I do not remember any law prohibiting this. The only law which exists is for Wild Life and Stray dogs or rats or mosquitoes are not covered under it.
To put it bluntly, just go ahead and kill the dogs and clean up your locality.
there is a solution to this. the first is a three step program:
1.vaccinations
2.sterilisations
3.feeding and care of stray dogs
you can seek assistance for part 1 and 2 from organisations such as CUPA.
OR
just adopt these strays. i am sure the kids will love them as much as the dogs will love having shelter, food and not having to run for their lives because some human being thinks that a four legged creature is a threat to their lives.
now, i feel for the children. imagine what kind of future society awaits them if they are being raised in a world where adults conspire to kill animals instead of coming up with a sane and rational solution to suffering. stray dogs are the least of their problems.
Yes, probably this compassion is fair if an avarage citizen can see something is implemented and stray dogs don’t remain stray. You are right we have to love animals, does that mean we can let tigers and lions live and breed free in cities…despite the fact that they are carnivores. These dogs who are ‘killing’ humans needs to be culled. for others these plans sound good.
now, that we are getting specific and all that…i’d like to know how these irresponsible parents who let their kids out on the ‘dangerous streets where man eating dogs lurk’ should be penalised…
@ Jelli kallu.. what a load of crap is this? what you are proposing is citizens of b’lore should be terrorized by these dogs and shud stay inside.. are you high? Please keep your love for animal crap to your CUPA meetings..
i am going to start praying for the children.
not because they are being ‘terrorised by stray dogs’, but because they have the misfortune to be in a city filled with adults who would rather kill animals than vaccinate/sterilise/feed them.
you better start praying too.
@Jellicles – I think you are mistaking this debate as between animal lovers and animal haters. No brother it is not.
Let me tell u abt something. I belong to Kolkata (calcutta), and there I used to feel secure on seeing street dogs as they act as guardians of locality, raising a din the moment an outsider was seen in the locality, especially at night. This happenned because these dogs have been there for years, at least I have seen them since my childhood, breeding in the same place, growing up. The locality takes care of them by providing them food, not in a institutionalised manner but in the same old Indian way of calling the dog and feeding the leftovers.
Bangalore is a growing city where new areas are being added every day and these ancient ties of man-animal bonding is not there. I stray, but the man-man bonding itself is not there.
Under any circumstances, a human child takes precedence over rights of everybody else. It is an inbred ancient reflex which will remain till eternity. That is what makes a species continue to live. Ever tried to manhandle a puppy, rest assured the rest of the dogs even if they are not related will pounce on you.
Coming to the point, till a culture of symbiotic relationship between man-animal grows up, it is better to have our streets free from them.
Regarding how to do it, well if my child is menaced by anything, not only a dog, if it is a human being also, I will hunt it out and kill it, as simple as that. As a parent I have that God given right to protect my child.
Moving further, why do I find this compassion for animals, restricted only to dogs, why don’t you guys start yelling, when trees are cut down which host squirrels and others, when people use chemicals like all-out, tortoise to kill mosquitoes. When they use pest control. Funny how can you differentiate between different kinds of living beings. Think it through and I believe all the postings will make sense to you.
And finally Sir, I would rather kill than restrict my child from its childhood freedom of roaming around, playing and learning. I do not care whether I kill a dog, or a cat or a mosquito or a rat or a human being for that.
If something doesn’t wants to be killed then they should not menace my child. As simple as that.
to sanjay pandey: good grief. do you see everything as black and white…so it’s either a child roaming about unsupervised on the streets while bein g threatened by abused/intact/hungry stray dogs that are lurking to kill your child or a child roaming about unsupervised on the streets as the adults actively ‘cull’ stray dogs because they cant be arsed to understand the concept of social responsibility.
the difference between you and me is that you see everything in black or white. i can recognise a world that exists with shades of grey. and in my world, problems have solutions. solutions exist because i give a damn enough to LOOK for them.
odd..i imagined that there was common sense, empathy and rationality in my world. rethinking after reading this angry and mindless exchange, i am compelled to believe that it is more TRAGIC than odd. and it isnt tragic for the dogs even.
Once again there is public hysteria over stray dogs. This time a four year old boy was mauled to death by a pack of 15 dogs, so the papers say.
What was a four year old boy doing unsupervised outside his home? Where were his parents? How can anyone allow a child so young to be outside with no one apparently there. Reports say that he was playing, if so, why were a bunch of very young children playing with no adult around? Anything can happen, children can get injured, a vehicle can hit them …anything….we will never know the truth. No pack of dogs are going to identify a human child , march up and attack him. There must have been some provocation. Either this child walked up to them while they were eating, or else, taught by adults, shooed and booed them, leading to the attack. Ever so often, adults teach children to throw stones at dogs, hit them, during Diwali, they tie crackers to their tail and laugh when the dog howls on pain. So why wont a dog retaliate? Any species will attack if a threat is perceived. Are we not culling over six hundred dogs weekly as a knee jerk reaction? Culling thousands, by that reckoning, of healthy, friendly dogs.
As for the media, all they want is a sensational story. Lorry drivers kill people everyday. How boring. Not worth news. Not worth creating a sensation over. Makes no political sense either. After all, politicians depend so much on lorry drivers -for transport of their ill gotten stuff, for votes, for so much more I am sure. Dogs are not vote banks.
How about the drunken driver who mowed down three people yesterday? Lets go kill him and all other drunkards.
Does anyone remember the stray dog who saved a 5 year old boy from being swept away by the Tsunami by dragging him several hundred meters to safety?
Does anyone know that there is a team of stray dogs who are taken to special schools and give therapy to the disabled children? The first words ever an autistic child spoke after these dogs interacted with him was the name of one of them “Charlie”.
Besides there is no such thing as a man eating dog. They are not hunting humans to eat. This is an instance of the dog-human interaction gone badly wrong and actions by humans usually children who are less aware of the potential dangers in their environment and should have not been left to wander unsupervised ( not to forget that there are cannibalistic pedophiles around!).
If you do want to wipe out the entire canine race, you might want to remember the experience of the Chinese in the days of the Great Leap Forward , who wiped out sparrows because they pilfered grains from the crops. For one year bonus harvests were reaped. For the rest of the decade , locusts multiplied unchecked by their predator , the sparrow, and the resulting famine killed millions.
Actions have consequences, and humanity does not live in a plastic bubble. For better or worse, we are the caretakers of this planet. We need to take the long view and find ways to deal with so called stray, or rather indigenous dogs in ways that are sustainable and mutually beneficial rather than resorting to knee jerk methods with dubious concequences.
Jellicles, let’s not get personal.
You have your point of view and other have their too. we all can keep commenting on our theories as long as it’s not our personal loss. There are clear definitions in indian constitution towards protecting human life and we all have to abide by them. Now questions will alway be raised on interpretation of these laws and provisions, but truth remains the same that a human life is lost so does lives of many dogs..
Yasmine, thanks for putting across in detail, the point on sparrows is wortha thought. if the natural symbiosis is disturbed we will face the consequences. The opinion differes when we try using such examples with stray dogs whose contribution to nature or human welbeing is perhaps what i fail to visualize. There are sensitivities around animals and plants but sometimes i see a vast imbalance on how we try and leverage certain issues when comapred to others are more verbose..
I agree with your point on significance given to such issues, When I know that there are still tens and thousands of chickens being culled for human consumption as the case with trees getting sacrified in urbanization, there are many humans dying in cities by road accidents that should rather have been given more focus and attention.
Firstly, Rajesh, these are not stray dogs. I am not playing around with words. These are native Indian dogs, dogs who have been abandoned by people, once their fancy for them is over, dogs who have been thrown out by breeders when they no longer fetch the breeder any money etc.
Please do visit a slum and see for yourself how much they love the strays. CUPA dog catching vans have been stoned, the dog catchers beaten up because teh slum dwellers love and protect their dogs.
The tea stall owner, the roadside cobbler, the watchman , all of these people want the strays because they protect them. I have seen, and this is true, I have seen several times a beggar, a so called roadside dweller share his/her food with the stray dogs. I have seen babies curl up with a stray and go to sleep. Labourers leave their children with dogs, knowing that these children will be safe.
Besides, research and see if I am wrong, but dogs are the scavengers of the city. they keep the garbage down as much as they can. It is their food source. This is how rats, mice etc become second order scavengers, never getting the advantage dogs have and thus their population is under control. Kill the dogs and then there is no stopping the rats. Will you choose rats over dogs?
The anti-dog people have an upper hand these days because we have allowed sentiment to override rational sense. The WHO condemns what is happening right now to the dogs in Bangalore (culling).
The politicians have taken leave of whatever little sense they may have had. Kill a 1000 dogs a day for a month? Where do you dispose of the bodies? Wont 30,000 carcasses become breeding grounds for disease?
Rajesh..you and other anti-dog people actually want 30,000 dead animals? Mass killing? Death…so bloodthirsty? Has this bloodlust helped anyone at anytime?
Even for the worst psychopath, death is given only in the rarest of the rare. Why? Because this is a human life…it is this putting human life above all else that has lead to one human community hating the other. Because while we value human life above all else , we also value the life of out culture, our religion, our language speaking people….
Will the person who killed three people a few days ago the death penalty? No.
We hit out at those who have no voice because at heart humans are cowardly bullies.
We are a part of the eco system where everyone has a role. We boast about being non-violent Indians and are condescending towards the west. Gandhigiri is reserved for show-off talk to whites. In truth, it takes little to make savages out of us. The riots in Bangalore being another example.
It is a pity that animal lovers are dismissed with a statement like ‘why don’t you adopt the dogs?’. Pass your buck. That’s what it is. Social responsibility is not culling dogs, social responsibility is taking rational scientific action for long term results that are compassionate and that work.
You are teaching your children that it is ok to kill. You are teaching them that and eye for an eye is the correct thing. Kill all those who come in your way. Kill all who are a threat to you. Violence is the answer. Animals are to be dispensed with. Child is the father of man. Good luck Rajesh.
BTW… I plant trees whenever I can. I am vegetarian. I have stopped many trees from being cut.
Besides blogging..i am sure all those who have put posts demanding the culling of strays, and have asked animal lovers to go take up issues like planting trees,have actively planted hundreds of trees, are eco-friendly, do not eat chicken curry, help the poor and needy, volunteer at old age homes, educate special children, hold candle light vigils for all those killed in road accidents, take rapists to court, fight for the rights of women and children, and please oh please are not so cheap that they give old clothes in a burst of charity and then go spend 500 on a pizza and cringe when asked do sponsor a childs education.
Yasmine, respecting your sentiments but don’t get personal. Stray dogs can be called city dogs or Indian dogs but they still have been a nuisance for those who don’t want them to bite and bark, if not they would also attain the indengeroued species list and will be protected. All solutions put forward like steralization, vaccination will not refrain any dog from biting. Yes, I do feel like others that there has to be a permanent solution on rehabilitating them toa place where they can live and can be saved without compromising human safety and inconvinience.
rajesh..the sterilisation and vaccinations WILL make the streets safer for everyone..it will protect the dogs from humans as well as the humans from the dogs. of course, seriously violent dogs which have no chance of rehabilitation will have to be euthanised, but you will see that the numbers are very few if the stray dogs are sterilised.
what is being suggested here is not unlike surgically removing the brain of a child because he might develop brain tumours when he becomes an adult. oh, please..and IT IS PERSONAL for many of us.
Sterlization will ensure their population is limited, vaccination will ensure they get protected. I wonder how the current situation will get resolved even if the above initiatives are done.
On a road i know , Rajesh, just as an example, there are 11 stray dogs. Have been for the last 5 years. No new dogs have entered as they keep territory. All of them loving and friendly. No bite cases. No attack cases. This is because they are sterilized. The children love them. They are revaccinated every year. They have been featured In Open Sesame of the Deccan Herald as loving , safe animals.
This road will go up in arms if they are removed. This road must have a 1000+ people. Not all of them are necessarily animal lovers. But they all are very definitely attached to these street dogs.
Going by your elimination logic, who is next? cows? horses? birds? beggars? squatters? Road side shack owners? Your neighbour? You?
rajesh:
NO. sterilisation will not only mean that they numbers will not increase. it means that the dogs wont go into heat. it means that they wont indulge in pack behaviour. it means that they will NOT attack human beings they consider as threats.
vaccination will ensure that the dogs AS WELL as those who come in contact with the dogs are protected.
abused dogs will react badly to hostile human beings or even indifferent humans because they are wary of being hurt or abused again. well fed animals, when they know where their food comes from will react completely different from hungry creatures scrambling for scrapes while trying to avoid beatings/stonings and other hostile human reactions.
please..why are you discounting TRIED AND TESTED SUCCESSFUL strategies before you have even witnessed them. please visit an animal shelter..be a witness before you judge and execute those which you fear.
yasmine, you said to rajesh..”Rajesh..you and other anti-dog people actually want 30,000 dead animals? Mass killing? Death…so bloodthirsty? Has this bloodlust helped anyone at anytime?”
i dont think the anti-dog folks can even watch one dog dead. they speak of death and killing in such casual terms..it is only words, you see..so they imagine that the actions are as neutral as the words that describe them.
we cannot create life. we cannot revive the dead. a beating heart…the arrested breath of life..once it is gone, it is gone. when you dont own this life, nobody…NOBODY..has the right to take it away.
rajesh, i ask you…have you see the moment of death? the sliver of a second..when a breathing, living BEING turns into a motionless, inert THING? can you imagine being rounded up and stuffed into a vehicle before being transported to a place where certain death awaits you. all for what? because a few million people are too lazy to shell out a few hours in a year to make sure what needs to be done is done? because people who probably dont even have the balls to swat a fly indulge in rabble rousing to MURDER thousands of dogs because one stray questionable incident?
please..we are thinking people..we are evolved..evil is born when we sacrifice willingly our hard wired empathy….during the nuremberg trials , a U.S. army psychiatrist, Capt. Gilbert, routinely interviewed and built relationships with the nazi war criminals. at the conclusion of the trail he discovered they all had a single common dominator. He stated, “Evil is a lack of empathy, a total incapacity to feel with their fellow man.” And Hart added, “I would suggest that evil acts stem from a lack of empathy.”
all of us cannot be Gandhi, but we can at least try to be human….and not evil.
Yasmine, Yes I do have few of them in my neighbourhood too, thay have not bitten me and I don’t hurt them as we seem to respect each other..
if they ever hurt me I have right to ask eleminating them as there is no law which states that these starys can not be removed if they cause disturbance and hamper my welbeing.
Also the last paragraph of your comment is what I say is not appropriate. ( this is my polite warning)
Don’t hold me responsible for the elimination logic, I have’t asked for it, and is purely circumstancial and triggered by the incident.
@J, cool off a bit.
All animals in animal shelter may have benn tried and tested, but there are thousands who are still wondering and waiting depite attempts on birth control still their population multiplies…
No one is challenging the process, meathods adopted by NGO’s but the effort done is far lesser than required and inadequate.
@J, Nice sentiments!! I wish we would not have any army for any country and world would not keep posting about poverty,hunger, femine and blah blah blah!!
@Yasmine –
It looks like we got a battlefield drawn. On one side are the people who want the safety of their kids and on the other side are people who want the safety of animals to the extent of making human kids unsafe.
Some questions were raised :
1. why the kids were unsupervised. Madam/Sir, whatever I remember of my childhood was completely unsupervised. I never had my parents or for that matter parents of my friends supervising while we used to play. Next suggestion would be to handcuff a child so that he does not go out and disturbs, precious dogs, cats, rats and off course mosquitoes.
2. People are bloodthirsty – No ma’am nobody is. Only thing people are that they care for kids and each one of us visualises our kids in the same position. We are not again your dogs. You can have a million of them for all I care, till they do not threaten the well being of child. That is the line. If that is crossed, all hell will let loose. Inspite of all of your protestations, street dogs are not a protected species.
3. Have any one seen death ? – Yes ma’am I have and much more than you might think about. Not only dogs but of humans also and that is what has made me extra sensitive about a human being killed by an animal. I am not saying that a human being killed by another human is right, that is also deplorable and in my books that killer is same as the killer dogs and hence same treatment should be meted out. In my earlier post also I pointed out the same thing. It is not about dogs but about anything which menaces a child.
@J – your quote from Nuremberg trial can be applied to misguided animal lovers also. I can say that Animal Lovers are not empathising with the parents of the dead kids and so on. I hope you understand what I am trying to say. I have been brought up in an environment where the only street dogs we saw were downright friendly and protective. That doesn’t means that when a pack of dogs kills a child, I should accept that. If I do that then I also have to accept the rapist and murderers as they are human in species and so I should be shouting against their execution. Which I do not intend to do. From my side their should be public hangings for them also.
Hope I was able to get my point across.
Sanjay…I am not interested in war.
I am a teacher. In my school no child under the age of 9 is left unsupervised. Seriously, a four year old child alone long enough for dogs to attack and kill him? Four years…far far too young . Your childhood was very long ago.Things were different then.Also please do not suggest that your parents were careless enough to leave you unsupervised at a age below 5.
Besides this is not about animal safety Vs human safety. This draconian attitude, where, logically and eventually you would find reasons to kill all animals, given the slightest circumstance, will eventually destroy humans. Ecology is about co-existence. I would not want to cut my nose to spite my face to show you the consequences of your thinking.
and while you protect your children against dogs, take up the cause of the children at Nithari too. There too children died in a horrific manner. But have you the guts to do so? You will only hit out at a species that you know you can overpower and kill. Why not go kill mohinder singh?
and rajesh…very politely I ask you, go check out the NGO’s and their work. Go undercover, whatever it may take. then maybe you will have a rethink.
sanjay, the last thing i want is to draw battlelines. i want people to come together, not be divided.
of course, children need to be safe. but they have dangers lurking in every corner. most dogs are friendly. they are the guardians of the street.
and no, we dont have ‘public hangings’ anymore. and we most certainly dont punish an entire people/species/race because of the actions of one or two dogs. but that is what you are suggesting. i was angry before…now, i am only saddened.
Yasmine,
Thanks for the suggestion. I have had, will work with,via and for NGO’s. Most of my colleage years I have worked with them and leaded few initiatives too. As you and me both don’t know facts about each other, assumptions would work otherwise.
I respect your opinion as an indivudual and see your strong sentiments, but that’s it! I do not attempt to judge anyone for that matter with any assumptions.
Perhaps this discussion/topic is pulled up extensively and started showing bitterness towards participants, this would not help the situation and add value.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Keep reading metblogs!!
sure Rajesh.No one who has put up a pro dog post here is anti human. We only ask for humans to show some humanity. No one dismisses a gruesome incident-be it death by an animal or a human. What we ask for is merely what is the right of any species. A right to be treated with love and live and let live. take care.
After working in 4 metros before Bangalore (and this man-animal conflict is sadly not a Bengaluru phenomenon alone), I was stunned by the unscientific and primitive response that the government came up with.
I am not an NGO person, but saw first hand the “humane” culling that is being done.
Pets are picked up, neutered animals are being captured, because the captors get rs.50 per catch. Sadly, the friendly neighbourhood animals who come when called are getting caught, not the ferocious ones which need to be culled.
These dogs are then having their skulls crushed with rocks, throats slit, or just plain clubbed to death….”Humane”, isn’t it?
Not to mention that this is NOT solving the problem. The results have been seen in Surat in form of the plague, but thats ancient history for this insensitive techie-brat town of “dudes” who don’t care for anything beyond their backyards.
This opens the gates to animals from outside the city to encroach into areas which were otherwise protected by the dogs that are now exterminated. These are neither vaccinated nor docile, and the threat is bigger.
The threat to your child and mine, thanks to your knee-jerk, illogical reaction.
Unless one decided to kill all dogs in Karnataka state. Then there would be the problem of dogs from neighboring states – so why not a dog-less India? Then South Asia, because unlike you, dogs travel unhindered without passports.
I have been in the so called slums where such incidents are more likely to happen, (not in your cubicle or AC apartment), and the poor who is more vulnerable to this so called menace is actually in favour of saving the animal as his friend, security and company. They have fought the catchers, hidden the dogs in their kitchens to protect them.
The sad thing is that this is completely irrational and emotional. It creates problems, and not solve them.