Opinion We let the dogs out
Nobody wants children mauled or terrorised by dogs and indeed, something needed to be done. To cultivate awareness means to remain as true to the truth as possible; and to make peace with all the ugliness that comes with, as Camus said, the terrible responsibility of life.
Nuanced debate is dead in India but it should strike everyone as weird that dog lovers have unfairly become enemy number 1 post this order. 
One week before my son was moving to the US for college, he tripped over a stray dog snoozing peacefully in a Gurgaon market. My son is an accident-prone klutz and it was entirely his fault for disregarding the old adage about letting sleeping dogs lie, thereby incurring a nasty bite. There wasn’t enough time to finish the anti-rabies injection course. Dog rabies has been eradicated in the US and I couldn’t figure out a way for him to get the final shot there. Desperate, I sought the advice of my dog’s vet, who, over a 30-year-practice, knows a thing or two. All strays aren’t rabid, he assured me, suggesting we go back to check on the dog. If the animal was hale and hearty, we had nothing to fear. Sure enough, the dog was chilling in exactly the same place. Relieved, we abandoned the medication and my son left as planned. It’s an unfortunate reality in Delhi-NCR that every family has a stray dog story; but all the strays in major markets are vaccinated and sterilised due to efforts by citizens and NGOs.
Currently, there is no more contentious topic in Delhi society than the SC order of August 11, that strays need to be taken off the streets and moved to (non-existent) shelters. People are divided between the righteous — who believe that man’s best friend, neglected and abandoned though he may be, has every right to live — and the practical, who are firmly of the view that human safety takes precedence over everything else. In this, the second lot are supported by SC Justices Pardiwala and Mahadevan who rather dramatically invoked dialogue from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly before condemning lakhs of dogs to an unseemly end: “When it’s time to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.” The tone throughout the SC’s order suggests an odd sort of bloodthirsty brutality, a metaphorical sifting once and for all, of the powerful from the powerless. The SC witheringly used the phrases “so-called animal activists” and “so-called animal lovers” as if it’s their fault that the municipalities-mandated CVNR protocol — Capture, Vaccinate, Neuter and Release — has been an abject failure.
Nuanced debate is dead in India but it should strike everyone as weird that dog lovers have unfairly become enemy number 1 post this order. I have never fed a stray; maximum, if I remember, I put out water for birds in June. On my daily walk, I see a guy on a bike distribute biscuits to strays. Lacking the same level of compassion, I have a grudging sort of admiration for people who have it. Urban life tends to make one insular and selfish. Should I be so dismissive of my fellow citizens who exhibit kindness? Everyone falls short of the glory of God, nevertheless, we all have small but vital roles to play in the unfolding destiny of the world. Strays, too, need a champion. Infuriating though we may find strays moving ominously in packs, the alternative, a starving dog at our doorstep, is worse. Somebody sharing privileges with beasts from whom they receive nothing in return can’t be all that evil. At worst, their search for existential meaning is clashing with community responsibility.
Nobody wants children mauled or terrorised by dogs and indeed, something needed to be done. To cultivate awareness means to remain as true to the truth as possible; and to make peace with all the ugliness that comes with, as Camus said, the terrible responsibility of life. In that spirit, can we at least agree the arbitrary jailing of a million community dogs is a horrific solution? Even if we must philosophically accept that solving crises in India means choosing the least awful option.
The writer is director, Hutkay Films
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