Am I the only one who thinks of an infamously disturbing Borat quote whenever Pamela Anderson is mentioned: “She had golden hairs, teeth as white as pearls, and the…”. I am? Sigh. Okay, fine.
Via the Beeb:
Stray dogs in India’s financial capital, Mumbai (Bombay) should be sterilised not killed, says former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson.
Animal lover Ms Anderson intervened on the dogs’ behalf in a letter to the city authorities.
“Dogs cannot use condoms but… they can be ‘fixed’ painlessly,” she wrote.
The star learnt of the dogs’ plight after Mumbai’s High Court recently said strays should be killed as they were a “permanent nuisance” to the public. [BBC]
Hmmm. That same BBC article states that “Despite several sterilisation programmes, the population of strays has not been controlled”, so I’m not sure if the Baywatch Babe’s solution is an effective one.
More:
The court gave the ruling in response to a public interest litigation filed by a Mumbai-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), In Defence of Animals, challenging the validity of certain provisions of a law that permits killing of dogs under certain conditions. It said animals had as much constitutional right to life as humans and had a “right to expect compassion from Indian citizens”.[ST]
The court interpreted “nuisance” in this instance as “anything that endangers life or is injurious to the health of the public at large”.
While it noted that mere barking could not be cause for killing a dog, “dogs that have the habit of chasing moving vehicles, especially two-wheelers, may be treated as a public nuisance as they could lead to accidents”. [ST]
If all else fails, they could consider one Delhi politician’s innovative solution to his city’s problem with strays. 😉 But back to Bombay.
Animals rights activists say that as many as 70,000 strays in Mumbai and many more across the states of Maharashtra and Goa may be disposed of if the High Court’s ruling goes ahead.
The decision has been stayed until the end of this month.[BBC]
According to the Straits Times article I quoted, those 70,000 stray dogs are responsible for 25,000 dog bites, annually. So while some fed-up residents have taken to poisoning dogs, animal activists caution that cleaning up the city is a better solution, since the dogs tend to forage through the garbage for food.
I’ll close with a quote from “Medical professional Samir Guliyani”, whose name delights me to no end, and who went beyond the obligatory, understandable and predictable “Who does she think she is?”-sentiment:
“The way they suddenly pounce on bike riders is dangerous. Something has to be done and they have to be off roads.”
On the subject of Pamela herself, Mr Guliyani said: “She is hot but why is she writing to the municipal commissioner[BBC]
Duh, that’s what hot people do.
I think that’s a pretty standard (legal) definition of nuisance–it’s a legal category here, that might include, for example, dumping trash in your backyard that attracts rats and insects.
1 · rob said
Oh, good to know! Amended accordingly. 🙂
Does Pam have nothing else to do? Oh, wait, she doesn’t. What I always fail to understand is the volume of celebs who would turn out to save strays and prevent harm to them, but wouldn’t do the same for the homeless population…not that I’m saying animals are less important, but they seem to give them more importance than human beings.
I love dogs and the strays even more, I have lived in Bombay and used to drive a bike and let me tell you, it is not fun being chased by a pack of dogs in the middle of the night. I don’t think that killing the dogs is the only solution but I personally don’t have a better one. Didn’t Greece do something similar during the Olympics with their strays?
This was about 15 years back. I was walking back to my apartment in Lokhandwala, Bombay after the last movie show. A bunch of stray dogs started following me at a place, where ther was no one around(very few places in Bombay). Few courageous dogs came closer and started smelling my crotch. I thought I would be emasculated by one of the hungry ones. Fortunaley I had the ability to hide fear and show courage on my face. Otherwise they would have neutered me. I am all for neutering those sons and daughters of bitches.
another example of anderson’s advocacy for…surgery
Typical Pam Anderson, advocating surgery for no good reason. Sometimes you don’t need surgery, you just need soup.
Hey hey hey! Offroaders are people too, and there’s no guarantee that dogs that pounce on bikers won’t jump on offroaders as well.
i’ve had one of my dogs (not stray) poisoned and it’s a wretched, inhumane way to die. unfortunately, after allowing the stray population to reach this level, there’s probably nothing they can do but cull if they want the problem to be out of sight, out of mind. but i wonder how they will cull – will they have the resources for humane euthanasia or will they strangle them with wire as i’ve seen happen in india? but all the evidence shows that mass killings of strays has never worked in areas where people don’t take responsibility, don’t change their own behaviour/attitudes and where there isn’t any widespread humane spay and neuter program. in a few years, the stray population will be back to where it was, especially in countries with “designer dog” syndrome. other developing countries have implemented more widespread spay and neuter programmes and india could if there was any sort of wider public support for it. in the end it’s the best option for humans and animals.
disclaimer: this doesn’t mean i don’t care about humans.
9 · Whose God is it anyways? said
That is how I lost my last dog, Rani, two years and 12 days ago. I wouldn’t wish such a horrible fate on any dog (or their human). I am haunted by her absence and how/why she died, every day.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
She’s correct – the humane thing to do is neuter them. Indian dogs are already wretchedly abused – I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen one kicked for no reason at all, just for the hell of it. It’s not surprising that every dog looks at you as if afraid you’re going to murder it. Actually I think they’re a great metaphor for the Indian poor – kicked by everyone, vulnerable, exposed to all sorts of disease, living in the gutter, and despised. If we’re that bad to people, shit, what chance do dogs have?
“I’m so sorry for your loss.”
thank you. that’s very kind. and I’m sorry for yours. we’ve lost three of our many dogs (all former strays) in the last year, the most recent last week (aggressive cancer). she nearly made it to 16. i understand what you mean by “haunted by her absence”. to me, they’re like children – both the most vulnerable in need of protection and a safe haven from the cruelties of this world.
Well, we do have drugs that castrate people chemically (it’s an optional treatment for convicted pedophiles in some states to get reduced sentences). If some enterprising IIT grad can develop a way to put the cocktail of drugs into a single injection, redesign it for dogs, and modify a tranquilizer-dart gun as a delivery mechanism we could just hire some people to go around the city doing doggy-drive-bys.
Or we could offer up a bounty: 250 Rs. per ball.
13 · NaraVara said
Yeah, the doctors and biologists at IIT are very smart.
Am I the only one whos interested in knowing if Ms. Anderson is sterilized.
So when is IDoA filing a PiL against all non-vegetarians? And why are they bigoted against plants?
Free Mike Vick.
14 · saa said
Sorry for the digression but IITs dont produce biologists or doctors; they are primarily engineering colleges.
18 · Lurker no. 1 said
i think OP was being sarcastic 🙂
18 · Lurker no. 1 said
Yea, the IIT guy was supposed to make the dart gun.
Anna,
I LOVE Rani! She’s so precious. I adopted a baby German Shepherd when I was very young, and he was one-of-a-kind. Does she get separation anxiety while you’re away?
Regarding this article: I just came back from India. I think that this is a good idea. Moreover, this could be initiated via a social-works program in which anyone who captures a live dog is rewarded Rs.50. There should be safeguards such that people don’t capture already-adopted dogs. Also, an already-adopted dog is registered with the newly-created agency – the Indian Kennel Association, and all registered dogs have a RFID embedded in their skin or a dog-collar.
Indian stray dogs make a lot of noise at night, they do kakoos all over the place, and they spread disease. It’s also quite shameful when they ‘get it on’ in front of my family and I.
As far as the export to S. Korea ‘soup option’, I believe that was rude.
“Indian stray dogs make a lot of noise at night, they do kakoos all over the place, and they spread disease. It’s also quite shameful when they ‘get it on’ in front of my family and I.”
people do all of those things too:) and not just the poor:)
Concerned people could also donate to programmes like this:
http://www.hsus.org/hsi/dogs_and_cats/spay_neuter/
it’s funny how when it comes to problems that people create for themselves, we’re told that prevention is better than the cure and that we must get to the root of the problems and find long-lasting, humane solutions, even for murderers. but when it comes to problems that people create for animals, then it’s perfectly fine to ignore the root of the problem and eschew long-lasting, humane solutions for short-sighted cruel ones such as wiping them out because they’re such a nuisance to us. we domesticate animals and then punish them for being domesticated.
It would seem that a widespread spay and neuter problem would also be an opportunity to provide jobs to the poor – train the homeless or street children in basic veterinary procedures or as vet assistants. given the large number of roaming animals in urban india, there’s some scope for a program that benefits all. it’s no wonder that many universities are thinking of starting programs in Global Animal Public Health to supplement Global Public Health (Human).
From Humane Society International’s website:
“With no humane programs in place, governments and citizens sometimes turn to abhorrent methods of animal control: electrocution, poisoning, beating. Animals are treated as one more element of garbage to be removed from the streets. Without proper spay/neuter programs in place, these methods are not only brutal, but ineffective. Animals continue to reproduce, quickly replacing the ones who have been killed with yet another generation of ill-fated puppies or kittens.
The solution to this pressing problem is complex, but one component remains constant: the need for spay/neuter. Reducing the number of unwanted animals is the only way to reduce the number that end up on the street. HSI works with local partners and communities to implement spay/neuter and animal health initiatives in a dozen countries (including India) around the globe.”
“Moreover, this could be initiated via a social-works program in which anyone who captures a live dog is rewarded Rs.50.”
unfortunately, i think unscrupulous and entrepreneurial types will start breeding strays just to turn them in for the reward.
i apologize for coming across as preachy, but just wanted to highlight one other thing from humane society international’s work:
“In Jaipur, India, HSI supports the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Extension Project through the organization Help in Suffering, an HSI Animal Advocate. Over the last decade, this project has helped train countless veterinarians in humane surgical techniques, as well as overall humane animal control methods. ABC has improved the standards of animal surgery and post-operative care as well as greatly contributed [PDF] to the expansion of spaying/neutering throughout Asia. This program has also been a shining example of how vaccination/sterilization programs can succeed in eradicating the incidence of rabies in both the street dog and human populations. It is estimated that 20,000 people a year die from rabies in India; however, within the city limits of Jaipur, with a human population of 2.3 million, there have been no cases of human rabies deaths in the last five years.”
Some of the best workouts I’ve got is being chased by dogs. So dont do anything.
But Pamela Anderson is hot, so,, tough choice…
Really?
http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/international/gulabi-gang-poor-indian-women
Pam’s trying to unseat Maneka Gandhi as the animal lover. I love animals I really do, dogs, cats, rabbits, snakes anything (ok maybe not sewer rats) but human beings in India could use her help more than the dogs. And being the victim of a stray dogbite in India when I was a kid I rather see the dogs be put out humanely than suffer thru the abuse most of them do in the streets.
20 · NV said
My bad 🙂
26 · rabbit said
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Ms. Anderson gets brown props for helping Mohini Bhardwaj get to the Olympics. She is cool like that.
Here in Delhi, many dogs are already neutered for years now and it has made a noticeable reduction in not only the overall population, but also the aggression of dogs. While they are admittedly more problematic for people walking/cycling through the city at night, for the most part, dogs are living in their own little universe alongside people. i suspect most bite victims had a part to play in their own dogbite incident. In delhi you can identify spayed/neutered dogs by their notched ears.
I just came back from Delhi, and it’s a remarkable clean city. They made bold air pollution laws, and now, their air is cleaner than the air in Toronto. I’m sure that their dog program was a success.
Here’s an idea: Have a dog-catching program for 1 month, and only one month. The incentive to capture a stray dog is Rs.100, and because this program lasts one month, there is no way that people will breed dogs.
India has a big problem, not just with dogs, but with other noisy animals like hogs and monkeys living in the streets fighting and keeping people up at night. Though I’m not for killing them off, something has to be done but I don’t know what.
The way in which they catch the dogs is utterly cruel…you have to see it to believe it — the long chase of the terrified dog, the metal noose with which it is caught and lifted off the ground — which is then followed by being thrown into a van BY THE NECK with that metal noose. And at the end of this, the electrocution which is often slow and painful as the voltage is often never what it is supposed to be.
The other option the municipality in Delhi/Bombay/whatever uses is poison — always a slow and agonizing death over several hours.
The problem is not just the killing, but how it is done. Anna, I know you are against suffering and cruelty towards animals (and humans, of course), so I am a little surprised, and saddened, at the angle you chose to take on this story.
34 · mogwai said
Which angle? I mentioned Borat and a quote from someone with a name which reminded me of “Giuliani”. I didn’t advocate any of the torture or awfulness your comment contained. If you had scrolled up, you would know that I would NEVER support the poisoning of dogs. 🙁
I blogged this issue because it caught my eye. I don’t dare presume to know best about what should be done in this situation. I’m not a resident of either city in India in which this is a very real issue. I made no comment about “not just the killing, but how it is done”, so I’m not sure where this angle you are disappointed by is. If you object to my use of humor (which most of my posts contain) and want to accuse me of insensitivity to animals because of that, there’s nothing I can do. I’m saddened and surprised that anyone would infer from this post that I am suddenly insensitive to the plight of animals.
They need to be neutered in a gentle and safe manner.
I’m sure it can be done. Just needs good organization.
For that matter, dogs are’t the only ones who need to be neutered, and no, I’m not talking about Indian women.