Rabies is almost 100% Fatal: Keep away from un-vaccinated Dogs, Cats, Bats, Horses, etc. 

Photo Editor: Suman Mukherjee

Mumbai (Bombay) Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Navi Mumbai (New Bombay) are the Heavens for stray dogs and cats.  This has put the lives of common citizens in jeopardy, with successive state governments virtually doing very little to stop this menace. 

Many people object to killing these animals rather than sterilizing them, to limit their population; giving various arguments. This is one of the major problems, faced by the BMC, to make the streets free of stray dogs and cats. 

You can see that Australia is almost RABIES FREE,
while look at the Asian and African Countries.....!!

I think you know that dogs have a major religious significance among the Hindus in Nepal and India, particularly in Mithlanchal, North Bengal and Sikkim. The dogs are worshiped as a part of a five-day Tihar festival that falls roughly in November every year. In Hinduism, it is believed that dogs guard the doors of Heaven and Hell. This makes the task of their elimination, even more difficult; as their is a religious sentiment attached to them.... 

But, I do not find any reason why the Stray dogs and cats should not be summarily killed to safeguard the human population!! What is the benefit of having a stray dog barking the whole day and sometimes biting, without any notice?

By the way, when innocent Chickens (hens and cocks), Goats, Sheep, Buffalos, etc are butchered by half-slitting their throats, then what happens to these "Conscience Keepers" called "Animal Lovers"? If they cannot stop people from eating meat of animals, murdered in such a pathetic way, then what is the harm to kill these 4-legged-living-time-bombs?

In Mumbai, after lot of complaints and push, at last the  Devendra Gangadharrao Fadnavis government has decided to set up temporary sterilization centres in every node to curb population of stray dogs. 

But I feel that instead of spending time on such soft measures, the government should bring in an amendment to kill the stray ones, so that the lives of the people are safe in Mumbai and other Indian cities. 

Meanwhile, the Honourable Supreme Court, last month agreed to examine whether municipal bodies can kill stray dogs merely on a complaint that they have become a "nuisance" to the public. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant said that it will look into the contradiction in animal welfare laws on what constitutes 'nuisance'. 

Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act says that if it receives a complaint that a dog has become a source of nuisance to the public, they can seize the offending animal and put it to sleep permanently. But you know India has lot of archaic laws and one of them  formulated under the central law - Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 - does not allow this. The 1960 law only permits the extermination of rabid, terminally-ill or mortally wounded dogs, and not nuisance-causing dogs. 

The court was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by an organization called People for Elimination of Stray Animals, seeking killing of stray dogs and by animal's right activists for protecting stray animals.