A shocking anti-dog ruling

by Anuradha Dutt

(December 26, New Delhi, Sri Lnak Guardian) The Bombay High Court last week passed an order sanctioning death for stray dogs that “create a nuisance”. The verdict has been stayed for six weeks

Even as the people of Mumbai came together in a splendid show of solidarity in the wake of the terror attacks, to signify the affirmation of the human spirit, the Bombay High Court last Friday passed an order sanctioning death for stray dogs that “create a nuisance”. There has been no public protest in the city so far against the verdict, viewed as being contrary to the uniquely Indian ethos of compassion by animal rights advocates, specifically, and those who believe in the oneness of life, in general.

Two members of the three-judge constitutional Bench ruled in favour of such a course. So far as the judicial counsel for discretionary execution of troublesome strays is applied to rabid, fatally ill and injured canines, the order seems tenable on humane grounds. It is in line with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

Rabid dogs, in fact, endanger the lives of humans as much as other creatures while undergoing intense misery themselves. In the absence of a cure, mercy-killing is the sole option available. But, to seek to rid the city of homeless canines simply because they bark too much and create a nuisance is a viewpoint that is open to appeal. One of the members, who differed from the majority opinion — Justice S Radhakrishnan, head of the Bench — advised extermination only of strays that were rabid and moribund. The verdict, to be applied to the whole of Maharashtra and Goa, has been stayed for six weeks. It goes against existing laws. Article 51A(g) of the Constitution, in the section titled ‘Fundamental Duties’, advises “compassion for living creatures”. It should be read along with Art 51A(h), which advises developing “the scientific temper, humanism…”; and Art 25 that assures the right to freedom of religion.

So far as the last is concerned, the Indic religions all recognise the right to life of species, other than the human, on the premise that the same soul dwells in all. It is a fundamental tenet of faith. Therefore, compassion is emphasised in one’s actions. Long before the pre-Christian era, sermons, delivered by Upanishadic sages, which dwelt on the unity and inter-changeability of life, stressed such conduct.

Buddha and Mahavir accepted the tradition of compassion while rejecting the ritualistic and social edifice. King Ashok, after the destruction of Kalinga, was so repelled by the carnage that he had perpetrated that he swung to the other extreme of ahimsa or non-violence through remorse. In modern times, Mahatma Gandhi was perhaps the most vocal advocate of ahimsa, and based his satyagraha (civil disobedience movement) on non-violence. It is another matter that India’s freedom finally came at a heavy price, in light of the partition and its bloody aftermath.

Still, respect for the ideal of compassion and its philosophic underpinnings endured.

The virtue of kindness was linked to the theory of transmigration of the soul from one body to another, one species to the next. It was perhaps the earliest idea of evolution known to man. The monad evolved through myriad genetic modules, including the canine, to reach the human state, considered the summit of existence because it facilitated self-realisation.

Ancient Western cultures — notably Greek and Roman — referred to metempsychosis and palingenesis. Manichaeism (Iran, 3rd century ADF), Gnostic Christianity and Sufi Islam also subscribed to this mystical view of the inter-linking of life. In the present context, evolutionary biologists and ecologists underline the necessity of preserving life forms for the survival of the earth. Thus, scientists, as much as theists and environmentalists, accept the inter-dependence of species for healthy and balanced existence. They cite China as a nation heading towards ecological disaster because it has decimated its sparrows, in a bid to magnify agricultural yield, and killed huge numbers of dogs, cats and other creatures for food or other reasons. The delicate balance of nature is completely skewered.

Here, pantheistic beliefs have ensured a healthy respect for nature and the animal kingdom, with mountains, rivers, caves, forests, birds and beasts all being considered sacred. Any development project that entails destruction of the environment meets with resistance by activists and NGOs. Animal rights similarly have vocal proponents.

In the Hindu ethos, dogs have a respected place as the god Yama’s messenger; as the faithful companion of Yudhishtir; and as instruments for alleviating misfortune, with feeding of dogs being cited as remedies for afflictions. Any move to kill stray dogs without good reason would repudiate logic as well as tradition. - Sri Lanka Guardian