STRAY DOGS - A GROWING MENACE

Friends, I’m taking up this cause to write upon, through personal realization of its seriousness. No longer is my dear park safe, frequented as it is by mongrels who roam unhindered inside and outside. In fact the hordes have been shooed away by adjoining villages and landed in our peaceful vicinity. I feel terrorized and my imagination runs wild conjuring up horrific scenes of dog attacks. My fear has got the better of me to make me halt my preferred activity of enjoying a morning walk.

Just imagine that our cities have been in the throes of this blight for a long time and still we’re rudderless to find effective solutions. Does it mean that we’re incapable of seeing the writing on the wall and delude ourselves into believing that it’ll go by itself, like a pigeon that closes his eyes on seeing a cat and ends up losing his life? The grievous consequences of this apathetic attitude are felt by the whole populace –rich and poor, young and old. Yet so callous we’re that we don’t muster up the will to execute measures which have been discussed ad nauseam. Now can any nuisance be wished away? Nah.

Almost every day there’re news about stray dogs endangering early morning walkers, unescorted children, cyclists, milk vendors and mobike riders et al. Many horrifying incidents are reported daily, still no urgent steps’ve been undertaken by our municipal corporations whose councillors are elected with much fanfare and the process gets wide reporting in newspapers. Are the people manning these institutions living in ivory towers that they are not conversant with ground realities? Where on is the tax payers’ money being spent, if not for public good?

Are we to remain mute spectators to the gory killings of small children by these canine brigades? This insensitivity has to go!

Apart from the danger of rabies and lethal attacks, stray dogs pose a threat to smooth running of our daily lives. One sees them causing ruckus among themselves at street corners or near garbage dumps and scaring passers-by. The ferocious dogs jump low boundary walls, snap at owners and scatter waste by over turning the bins.

There is no part of India, which is not in the grip of this scourge. The atmosphere is charged up. Let members of animal rights groups, civil society groups and Government agencies put their heads together to implement an action plan to stamp out this problem. There is no time to dither any more.

.image courtesy: Google