Since arriving in the US I had been wondering how cities maintained their streets free of stray animals. Whenever I see people walking their pets ranging from micro miniature sized designer dogs to huge beastly looking but very friendly furry canines, I would wonder if America has only thoroughbred dogs of pure bloodline. What about native species of dogs? Where are they gone, were they massacred like native Indian tribes? What if some dog just escaped and got lost? What about unwanted puppies, what happened? These questions continued to plague me and I never got any convincing answers. I had read about pet adoptions in newspapers on and off and seen some adoption drives during earth day celebrations at the college. These were not large scale operations which would take all dogs off the road.
But then suddenly out of the blue I got all the answers I was looking for in the form of a newspaper article yesterday. The article written by Steve Blow in Dallas Morning News came as a shocking blow to me. According to the article there is a well oiled stray dog slaughtering machinery in place in Dallas, managed by Dallas Animal Services and Adoption Center. Here "Animal Services" means killing or euthanising or putting them to sleep.
As I read the article I broke into cold sweat and wondered how governments can enact such cruel policies. The staff of the Animal euthanasia department don't like their jobs but they don't have a choice, if they have to feed their families they have to mercilessly kill stray dogs. The number killed is not one or two but run into hundreds... daily and thousands... annually. The statistics are shocking, 29,000 stray/ unwanted/ neglected animals were killed last year (2007) alone. And this is an everyday phenomenon.
While in Bangalore as a member-volunteer of PFA (People for Animals), I have been instrumental in bringing to book several individuals who had meted cruel treatment to stray animals and pets. What the municipal authorities did back home in Bangalore was to vaccinate, deworm and spay stray dogs and set them free back where they come from. Bangalore city alone had about 70,000 stray dogs, when the civic authorities suggested culling, there was a public outcry and most citizens said that, we had no right to take away a life, be it a human or animal. But here value systems are different and there is nothing wrong in killing thousands of dogs regularly.
As I completed reading the article, I wondered, America is five times the size of India and hosts 20 percent of the population which is at least 10 times richer. Is it impossible to establish some kind of a system where stray animals are not slaughtered and buried along with trash in landfills? Can we show a little human courtesy and kindness to these gentle creatures which are said to be "Man's best friends"?
I'd like to know your opinions on this.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Why there are no stray dogs in Dallas?
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5 comments:
I agree with your comments. Dallas is currently entertaining a new law that would require all pet owners to spay/neuter their pets at six months of age and would require breeders of dogs (who qualify as breeders under the law) to pay an annual fee for breeding. Many pet owners, such as myself, are against this proposal but we do want a solution to the problem. I encourage you to voice your opinion at the Dallas City Council briefing on June 18 and post your comments on http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/05/dallas-animal-ordinance.
Dear Anonymous,
The solution is definitely not slaughtering. We as human beings, with capacity to think, need to find solutions.
You need to come to my neighborhood in East Dallas. We have a large pack of stray dogs running our neighborhood--they killed my cat about 30 minutes ago. They've attacked children walking the street as well as camp out on other property terrorizing the owners.
This is not a good solution. Humane ways require to be adopted as befitting a nation as great as USA. Simply killing is too easy a solution which any community can easily adopt, but unbefitting of America.
LOOK DOGS AND PUPPIES ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN U AND ME THEY BREATHE, THEY HAVE HAIR AND BLOOD AND A HEART (THAT'S SOMETHING THOSE PEOPLE DONT HAVE) HOW WOULD U FEEL IF YOU WERE THAT MAMA DOG IN THE CHAMBER ROOM WHATEVER WATCHING YOU KID OR KIDS DIE HUH YOU ALL SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YALL SELVES . I LOVE DOGS AND RESCUE THEM BECAUSE IT'S SAD I HAVE THE LAND AND THE MONEY TO TAKE CARE OF THEM......WE AS PEOPLE ARE KINDA LUCKY CAUSE WE HAVE C.P.S (CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES) TO SAY SOMETHING IN CHILD ABUSE AND CASE WORKERS AND THE POLICE THE ANIMALS AND DOGS OF THE WORLD HAVE NO ONE TO SPEAK FOR THEM THEY DON'T HAVE DOG OR PUPPY PROTECTIVE SERVICES YA JUST ANIMAL SERVICES BUT IF U CALL THEM U MIGHT AS WELL KILL THE DOG OR PUPPY YOURSELF CAUSE THATS WHAT THEY DO.......I CAN JUST IMAGINE WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN WHEN THEIR IS TOO MANY PEOPLE ON THE EARTH.....I HOPE YOU ANIMAL SEEVICE GUYS AND GIRLS GO TO HELL......... THANKS
mariah_unitedcopyservice@yahoo.com
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