Ramesh Babu - Kerala will turn into dogs’ own country, says anti-stray campaigner
He says the powerful anti-rabies vaccine lobby is behind the chorus against the culling of violent strays...“Recently a senior IAS official wrote an article saying in India rabies vaccine business is worth Rs 7,000 crore...Kerala is their biggest market. They want strays to multiply so that their business will thrive.”
Indias 20,847 deaths are over one-third of the world’s total - the highest incidence of rabies globally - BBC
For almost two decades
Jose Maveli, a Kochi-based activist, has been rescuing abandoned children and
helping them piece together their lost childhood but lately he has been in the
news for the wrong reasons. The 66-year-old
activist has floated a statewide movement to eradicate stray dogs and is facing
eight cases under the prevention of cruelty to animals act. He was arrested and
released on personal bail in seven of these cases.
After the death of a
90-year-old man, who was mauled badly by a pack of violent canines in Varkala
in south Kerala last week, he visited the area and that triggered a mass
killing of 40 street dogs. When the police rushed to arrest him angry locals
foiled it. But the mounting cases
have failed to deter Maveli, whose Jana Seva Sisu Bhawan is home to 250
destitute children. Aggrieved people are calling him regularly to seek his
advice. Last month, an alumni association in Kottayam district’s Pala even
gifted him an air gun “in recognition of his meritorious service.”
“We killed many cattle
when foot and mouth disease broke out and two years ago in Kuttanad (central
Kerala) and lakhs of ducks were culled in the wake of bird flu threat. No cases
were registered against anyone then. Why are not dogs killed when they pose a
grave danger to people?” he asked indignantly.
While animal lovers
call him a ‘demon Maveli’ - Maveli was an asura king - he said a true
philanthropist was one who loves human beings and animals equally. “Animal-lovers call me
a mass killer. It is not true, I have never killed a dog. I love my pets and
reared dogs till recently. What can we do when monstrous strays attack small
children and elderly people?” he said adding dog menace was not a recent
phenomenon and he has been warning about this quite some time.
According to a survey
conducted by the state animal husbandry department, there are around 9.23 lakh
domestic dogs and 2.70 lakh strays in the state. Government figures say
four people were killed in the last four months in stray dog attacks and 701
people, including 175 children, were injured across the state. This year,
53,000 people were treated for dog bites in government medical college
hospitals alone.
According to the
police, his movement is encouraging people to take the law into their hands but
Maveli says the action is spontaneous and he has nothing to do with it. He said last year’s
attack on a three-year-old in Kothamangalam really forced him to sit up and
think. “Hailing from a poor
family, his face was totally disfigured in stray attack and he underwent a
couple of surgeries. Authorities and animal-lovers never came for his help. Had
he been from an affluent family it would have been a big news,” he said. “Since most of the
local bodies don’t have any system to control multiplying canine population,
poor people are at the receiving end. Ten persons died this year and 35,000
bite cases reported in last four months alone,” he lamented.
Animal lovers blame
poor waste disposal methods of the state for the proliferation of strays. There are only about
1,500 veterinarian surgeons, but the state needs at least double that number to
effectively carry out its sterilisation programme. Since a majority of the
local bodies don’t have the infrastructure for animal birth control, quick, but
ineffective, measures are relied upon. Most are yet to switch
over from traditional sterilisation methods to the modern keyhole surgery, a
standard procedure followed globally. Veterinary doctors say
if keyhole surgery is performed, a dog can leave the hospital in two days;
other methods require at least four days of recovery, burdening an already
inadequate infrastructure. As a consequence, culling strays has become
commonplace.
He said the powerful
anti-rabies vaccine lobby is behind the chorus against the culling of violent
strays in the state. “Recently a senior IAS
official wrote an article saying in India rabies vaccine business is worth Rs
7,000 crore. True, Kerala is their biggest market. They want strays to multiply
so that their business will thrive,” he said, alleging the vaccine lobby was
funding some of these groups that want to protect even the violent dogs.
He said besides bites,
strays were responsible for at least 30% of accidents involving two-wheelers in
the state. Millionaire
businessman Kochouseph Chittilappilly, who triggered an organ donation drive in
the state after he donated one of his kidneys to a poor patient, has pledged
support to Maveli. Chittilappily, the chairperson of V-Guard Industries Ltd,
staged a series of protests including a three-day fast to highlight the issue
to the authorities.
Last week, Animal
Welfare Board of India board member Anjali Sharma criticised both for
instilling a fear psychosis among people. “If the situation
continued like this, God’s Own Country will turn into dog’s own country in no
time. I will continue my work till authorities take drastic steps to save poor
children and elderly,” he said adding 70% of bite victims belong to poor families.
