Animal Rights Activists Put Sick Stray Dogs Over People in India
Shah said the poison used, strychnine, was particularly cruel, causing terrible suffering to the dogs. Shah said he had proposed the city carry out a sterilization program instead but acknowledged that his organization had only managed to sterilize 400 dogs in the last two years.
PETA kills stray animals, even some that are adoptable. Yet, we only see the rare protest from animal liberationists against that group. But when an Indian city decides that it must poison 100,000 stray--and in some cases rabid, dogs--the rightists are outraged. From the story:Officials in Indian-Kashmir have poisoned hundreds of dogs and aim to kill all 100,000 strays in the region's main city - saying the animals pose a risk to humans and make urban life unbearable.
There's always "another way" for these people isn't there? But imagine the acute crisis to the public health and welfare that so many filthy, sick, flea infested, and famished stray dogs pose. What animal liberationists just don't get is that human welfare in crises like this must come before our emotional distress at the terrible prospect of poisoning so many animals.
With the world's highest rabies fatality rate, India has long struggled to control its millions of stray dogs, a problem exacerbated by rapidly growing cities and slums.
Animal rights activists vowed Thursday to go to court to stop the slaughter planned by Srinagar, saying it is an illegal and cruel solution to a problem that could be addressed in other ways...
It is a profound violation of human exceptionalism that India has permitted this matter to reach the crisis stage. The dogs were owed better. But it is generally a poor country and we should be charitable.
If animal rightists are so concerned, they will send in their pennies and dimes to help pay for a mass neutering program--which seems to me should also be part of this disturbing but clearly necessary program. But in the meantime, the public health must be protected.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:54 AM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
And here we see an example of what happens to animals that "thrive" in an environment without human intervention to ensure they are well-treated, fed, housed, and generally cared for. The terrible conditions these animals face is due to human negligence, and is the same sort of thing that animals world-wide would suffer without humans to intervene and do everything we can to protect them. Most likely they've had to struggle for food, suffer from fights with other dogs as well as other animals, the females probably suffered and died from too many litters too fast, and dogs *do* get attached to their puppies, so mother dogs have had to suffer the deaths of their litters.
It's horrid that these animals have to be put to sleep, but if humans had remembered their duty as stewards of this planet and taken care of the animals - spayed and neutered them if they weren't going to breed them, provided them homes and food and kept them from wandering, then these animals wouldn't be extinguished right now.
It's stupid to think that human beings should have nothing to do with animals - in the wild, they suffer without our help.
I do cut India slack due to its financial problems, but there still were small, easy efforts that could've been taken to prevent this from getting out of hand. We should all learn from this and remember that as stewards, we have a responsiblity to use (borrowing the phrase from Wes here) our exceptional nature to protect all domestic animals.
I am hardly an animal rights activist. I eat meat, I would kill a snake in a heartbeat regardless whether it is endangered or not but I have a tremendous soft spot for dogs. I have been a dog owner and was raised with dogs so a part of me feels utterly hurt to hear about this poisoning and I too wonder if there is another way. However, I understand human beings must come first. That public health must be a vital concern. But I feel outraged that my beloved dogs have been treated so shabbily! I feel outraged that the health of a people has been jeopardized to this extent! This is the way we treat man's best friend? You ask any K-9 cop if it is just a dog to him? No it is his partner and that dog has his back and will die for him just like a human cop will and this is how we treat our heroes? It seems like a very cruel decision, kill innocent dogs (who are rabid through no deliberate fault of their own) or let innocent people die because stupid government bureaucrats waited until it reached this proportion to stop it!
The worst part is that a lot of these animals *have* to be put to sleep - if they're rabid, they'll suffer unduely and eventually die, and can spread the disease through their dead bodies to other animals.
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