‘May you die a dog’s death’

Having seen a number of very well-fed and pampered dogs, my friends and I often joked about being born as dogs in our next lives. In such a scenario, the much used Hindi curse “tu agle janam mein kutta paeda hoga” (you’ll be born a dog in your next life) lost its significance. But for the past few years a number of incidents have shown me the enormity of this curse.

The starkest images are those of puppies – one lying at the side of the road, bloated, with a small puddle just below its mouth… slow drops of blood dripping into it. Recently, while at a shop in the locality I heard squealing and immediately knew what was wrong – another pup had been run over. Three men on a motorbike had ridden over it. It squealed and squealed while its mother ran after every bike that drove past, barking. The other little ones were running harem sacrum in the middle of the road, in danger of being run over any minute. While I took in the scene, one of them went over to the dying pup, caught it by the neck and shook it feverishly, trying to wake it. While I staved off the anxious mother and carried the siblings to the other side of the road, a colleague carried the dying puppy and laid it on a stone…and the crowd dispersed. I went back to the spot 5 minutes later, but couldn’t find the pup’s body. Instead, the whole family was there – mother, and all the puppies sleeping piled each other, nothing seemed amiss except for the fact that the one on the edge wasn’t breathing. A last attempt at pretending things were the way they used to be – before the garbage vat came and carried one of them away. I saw the mother again yesterday – she was sitting in a garbage dump and I went over to see how she was doing. She wagged her tail and it was only then that I realised that she was sitting near another little body – only, this one had no head.

Something needs to be done – but what? Don’t tell me about puppy pounds – we’ve been there – there’s no home for street pups. A dog we used to feed became a first time mother 5 months ago. We wouldn’t have known had I not found the puny little things squealing next to the bank. We fed them and when one was run over, carried the other 7 all over town looking for a home that would keep them. There was none. These animal shelters only care for injured and sick dogs. So basically, you keep the pups on the road, wait for them to get knocked down and only then are they eligible to gain entrance in to one of these shelters. We put them back on the road. And watched as one by one, each was crushed.

I’m tired of seeing these little things suffer. It’s high time something was done. One major way is by sterilising street dogs. Don’t give me that mumbo-jumbo about caring for dogs while there are people dying on the streets. If you understand suffering, you’ll understand it’s not limited to human beings – nor should help be. Another thing I’ve noticed is that just as there are numerous people who’ll beat, slap and kick dogs, there are some who go out of their way to help them. This isn’t a licence for complacence. There are precious few such people, so don’t count on the other person to help these dogs. Don’t say- ‘someone will obviously help it’ – that someone is you.

You’ll be surprised by the quarters from where help comes for these animals. People who know hunger seem more sensitive to the hunger of others. Some who have nothing reach out to these. A dog had littered near a main road and I loved passing by and watching the pups everyday. She had fellow pavement dwellers- unkempt, hungry, scruffy refugees who lived on the footpath and slept behind the electric box. On my way back from university one day, when it poured bucketfuls, I found this dog reclining under a bus stand. A straw bed had been made for her and her pups, and the family seemed quite dry on their straw mattress laid out under the tin shelter of the bus stop.

I struck up a friendship with the man who sells me Marie biscuits outside office (”Mary bishkut- kukur der jonno“). He recently told me that he rang up a hospital when one of the numerous puppies near his tin shack got run over and they came and took the injured pups away. That’s all it took – someone who cared.

Then there was the lady who took care of Nano – we named the youngest (and littlest) of the litter that. She had no money, but she took the pup home when the litter was attacked by another dog. Her neighbour made a little shelter for another dog – four pillars of bricks with a tin cover. It didn’t stop the pups from getting run over, but it sheltered them when they were newborn. Plus, his kids fed the little ones.

I’m not glorifying poverty – I’ve seen many being cruel to dogs. All I’m saying is that there are always means of helping if one wants to. A friend of mine told me about a sick dog in bow barracks. One winter morning, someone tied a tea cosy tied over its back with strings. One person fed it, then another, and now the fellow’s a well fed dog roaming around the locality.

Then there’s Gu-gu, a pup in Jodhpur Park who’s the entire locality’s pet. The construction workers of a building fed her when she was young, the press wallah took a special interest in her and then she was fed regularly by a friend’s mother, along with her many cats (each of them named Mini). Gu-gu was sterilised and today is the proud foster mom of a motherless puppy. But Gu-gu is lucky. Removed from her litter by a boy whose family didn’t allow him to keep a rastar kukur or neri, she was lucky enough to get dumped in a locality which feeds its resident stray cow and goat. This is one of the most pertinent dangers of people adopting stray dogs says Debasis Chakrabarti, who has been the managing trustee of People for Animals – people get carried away when they find puppies, adopt them and when they get tired of them, just pitch them out of the window. Responsibility? What responsibility – they are street dogs anyway. Oh, they’ll get used to the hunger. So what if their skin is wrenched apart by a pack of dogs, they’ll find their space among them. Run over? Surely it could have happened anyway – don’t pet dogs get run over?

It’s imperative for people to have their eyes wide open when they adopt a stray dog. The fact that they come for free doesn’t mean you’re picking up a stuffed toy to be thrown away at will. One can also adopt a Roadation without removing it from the street. We have Moti and Baby-girl, the former’s mate was run over in front of our house and the latter is the mother of those 8 puppies. Their food is mixed and warmed along with Dopey’s and Tiny’s – the Roadations in whose home we live- and they are fed on the street out of 2 plastic bags. The whole locality knows them now. Of course it’s not idyllic. We have a crabbity lady who lives down the lane grumbling about us feeding the dogs – she really doesn’t mind the sight of two starved dogs.

All one needs to do is care. A friend inspired me. She said – I don’t have much money, but even if I have 1 rupee in my pocket, it’s enough to buy a pack of Marie biscuits which means something to a starving dog.

I’ve seen people taking their pet Indian dogs for walks; I’ve also known people insinuate that the ones who adopt stray dogs don’t have the money to buy a pedigreed one. I don’t see what the big deal is though – if a person wants a status symbol, why not buy a diamond, or bike, or car (Moitre’s Rana da was showing me the picture of a dog worth Rs. 45 lakhs). Or having a pedigreed dog doesn’t stop 0ne from being kind to a stray. Another thought strikes me – what if strays were sold for 45 lakhs each, what if there were pictures of some Maharaja in some Honolulu land with a stray on a velvet couch- would these dogs be in demand then? Would their pups be in demand?

I’ll never get an answer perhaps. All I can say is – if each building fed a stray 1 meal a day (which could just be leftovers), made sure NGOs sterilised them, and protected them, there would be much less suffering around. I’m not going to end on a ‘make the world a better place’ note. All I’ll say is: It’s time we started doing something.