All We Need Is Love

As low as it may seem, on the rung of persistent issues to be addressed in our country, animal rights are far more important. While the community animals, and now certain breeds as well, are made to bear the brunt of it, there are several individuals and organisations who are working behind the scenes to accelerate the cause of animal welfare and justice in our communities

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Strays mauled a toddler in Hyderabad and another in U.P. recently while the kids were just playing by themselves. Both children lost their lives. Similar incidents have cropped up across the country with Kerala being a hotspot for such cases, due to which there has been a clamp down on community animals and measures like mass culling have emerged as solutions. The "stray dog menace" is what MP of Karnataka, Pratap Simha, had stated last year when addressing a mauling incident of a five-year-old in Telangana by a pack of stray dogs. He said that feeding stray dogs is not so much a social service project as animal lovers make it out to be and that strays should be eliminated without compassion.

Compassion. What a powerful word, makes the world go round, and yet causes the greatest divide when there's a lack of it. On grounds of compassion, the law reduces the sentence for a criminal and by law, as is your fundamental right, you are not hanged by the noose but given a fair trial. Then, what of the voiceless, the hapless, the defenseless, four-legged, furred ones who cannot defend themselves and are more often than not, the victims?

What of recent incidents such as a dog who was pregnant, beaten with a stick and tied and dragged by a bike in U.P.? Or the mass killing of 20 dogs in Telangana by gun shots? And the brutal murder of a puppy who was just seeking some affection but was instead stamped upon and thrashed against a wall by a deranged man in M.P! Horrific is not the word.