A Dog Day Afternoon
Let me be clear right away – this is not a review of that classic movie starring Al Pacino. I will write that one soon, this – this is different. This post is about the dangerous roads of Sangli city (more of a village with loads of malls and zero industries – my hometown). Going by Pune standards, where the municipal corporation is supposedly organizing motocross for inhabitants – the roads of Sangli are much safer in a constructional manner. Problem, as the title suggests, is dogs.
With that crazy old stupid lady Maneka Gandhi fighting, god knows why, for animals instead of putting that crooked mind of hers to some better use, the streets of Sangli are populated by dogs. In fact, during nights, after 2300 hours, more dogs can be found on roads than human beings.
So, as it turns out, dogs scare the shit out of me. I run away faster than a race horse if I see dogs approaching me from any angle (pun intended). One night, I was coming home from a long study session at my college’s study room. It was almost 0230 hours and I had almost reached my home – almost and suddenly, a pack of stray dogs started chasing me on my bike. Thankfully, with my elite driving skills, I was able to avoid any accident and could get rid of the ‘tail’ (again, pun intended – ever since I saw Sheldon and the sarcasm sign, I have been giving these comments out for people with nonexistent knowledge about these things).
Similar incident occurred with my friend. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as lucky as I was. He fell down from his bike on a day before the last test in his engineering life at the bachelors level and got bumps and bruises all over his body. Thank god, he did not suffer any broken bones, otherwise he would have lost 6 months in his life and would have had to re-appear. What for? Maneka Gandhi’s weird fantasies? Or the complete lack of interest and inability and incapability of the personnel hired by the municipal corporation? Maybe both?
This got me thinking. Is 6 months of my life worth the life of the 10-15 dogs in my area? Which chase many people, not just me and scare the hell out of people. Answer was simple – No. I would kill them all gladly and in an instant. Not more than a month ago, there was a news in Sangli which stirred quite a lot of opinions from public. There was a slaughterhouse on the road connecting 2 small villages near Sangli – Miraj and Bedag. Those SoBs were throwing the leftovers of the animals on streets and there were almost ~100 stray dogs in that area. For a few days, the number of animals being slaughtered was on a lower side and the dogs, ripped apart and ate a 4 year old girl. Similar incidents were reported for about a month, till finally someone decided to scatter poisonous meat for the dogs to eat and killed ~70-80 dogs.
Again, hypocrites emerged. Those people who were criticizing the municipal corporation for not killing the dogs (or at least catch them and make sure they cannot conceive again) went criticizing this act of killing the dogs.
For me, it’s all the same. I fully stand by the person who killed those dogs. A person, without any power in his/her hand cannot catch all those dogs. If the municipal corporation is not taking any measures, his/her only way out was to kill the dogs and save his/her own skin. He/She did the right thing and should be praised in public for saving our lives!
PS :- The Sangli Civil Hospital doesn’t even have enough stock of the Rabies vaccination required by the law. They need 3 months of stock and we have less than a months. For ALL the information and news, read www.esakal.com.
There's 7 Comments So Far
July 6th, 2010 at 23:54
yh…even i agree…even i hav had a bad experience wid em…;(
its high tym d municipal corporation takes an action!!
July 7th, 2010 at 00:03
I think animal lovers and Maneka Gandhi have taken the term “Every Dog has its day” too literally, and have stretched it to night, week, life, and right to terrorize humans too!! Aargh!!
July 7th, 2010 at 00:12
Yeah…..’stray dogs’ is really major trouble here….even dog vans put them up and then shift them from one colony to another….dogs change periodically but problem still remains same!!!
July 7th, 2010 at 01:06
For the record I love dogs. All of them, even the stray ones. But I do agree that Maneka Gandhi has taken the love of animals a bit too far. We cannot sacrifice human lives for the lives of stray dogs.
But we have to understand that dogs have evolved from wolves. They were domesticated by man. This way they became dependent on the goodness of man in feeding them. In the absence of this food supply they start reverting back to the habits of their lupine ancestors while remaining in human settlements, thus becoming a threat to us. Maybe we seem something like the animal pounds that western countries have. But killing of them in a inhuman(yes I extend that privilege to them) way is not the answer.
July 7th, 2010 at 01:58
Well, yeah, killing them is bad, but considering the point of view of those people living there – they pleaded the corporation to take care of the situation, they lost a child, they sustained heavy injuries. From their perspective, what they did was essential for their safety. Even I have never killed any dog, or even hit any. I am just saying that the dogs proved William Golding to be true – Human beings are savages by nature
July 7th, 2010 at 13:27
Killing dogs is no solution. Dogs cant use condoms like you guys, and neither can bitches consume Contraceptive pills to prevent themselves from conceiving, the job to sterilize them rests on humans..I agree the Municipality may not be doing their task properly, but thats because people in the community dont cooperate with them and help pick up dogs for sterilization when the van comes…once you sterilize all dogs in your area and ensure that the same lot comes back, the dogs wont reproduce and the population would remain static, plus these dogs would be come less aggressive and guard your colonies much better at night time (yes, thats when they better be out when humans are sleeping and snoring)…I wish the solution to rid this earth of overpopulation of human beings would have been the same as you suggested for dogs- killing them but alas that isn’t acceptable and recommended either as you all well know.
July 7th, 2010 at 13:42
Nobody is suggesting anything. It’s just a fact that happened. People tried their best to co-operate with the corporation and it did not work. The options they had left?
1. Leave home and go to work keeping the children at risk in home (most population here is in slums).
2. Don’t go to work and guard the children and starve.
3. Get rid of the dogs.
Final option was the best for them. Everyone knows that story of the monkey and its child (sorry
dunno what a small monkey is called 
).
And finally, the dog vans NEVER come. I have been living in the same place for 21 years now and whatever 10-15 years I remember, after launching multiple complaints and submitting written requests with signs of EVERYONE in the colony I haven’t yet seen the dog van in our area. Ever.
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