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It’s no stray matter as dog feeders face constant harassment
Stray dog feeders are important, as they not only feed community dogs, but also sterilise, vaccinate, and tend to sick animals. However, these feeders face regular threats. They are mobbed, assaulted, socially boycotted and their pictures and videos, taken without consent are floated on instant messaging groups.
Feeding community dogs has been a bone of contention, for the longest time, between animal feeders and residents of gated colonies and societies. Recently, volunteers associated with People for Animals, an animal welfare organisation, complained to Noida Authority against 11 societies for levying arbitrary fines, if an animal caregiver was caught feeding dogs inside the society premises. In another instance, one of many, video of a stray dog feeder being abused and heckled in Ghaziabad, went viral. While both sides have their views on the topic of feeding stray dogs, this puts a spotlight on dog feeders — outnumbered by those who don’t want stray dogs inside gated colonies and residential complexes — are subjected to hostility, threats, mob attacks, social boycott, invasion of privacy and fines.
“The problem has always been there, but as feeders we have become more aware and vocal about the rules and regulations. We are telling the societies that you cannot stop us from feeding. What you need to do is follow the rule of the land. The AOA (Apartment Owners’ Association) is not a statutory body and you cannot impose fines. Secondly, there is no way that you can promulgate guidelines that go against the court rulings, Delhi High Court rulings and the Constitution of India, which enshrines that feeding of stray animals is a fundamental duty. There is a designated body by the government of India — AWBI (Animal Welfare Board of India). You need to consult them, should you have to take any action on animals. You have no right to take the law in your hand,” said Chitra Chakravarty, a dog feeder and resident of Noida.
“None of the by-laws of any of these societies give them the right to impose fines. At least, the society that I live in does not. But most of them are majorly harassing feeders. For instance in my society, if you are seen feeding a dog within society, they fine you ₹5,000 and ₹10,000 for the second instance. They don’t have any authority to collect fines. The only authority in my case that is allowed to issue challans is the Noida authority,” added Chakravarty.
In many societies, RWAs (residents’ welfare association) and AOAs have issued a guideline that people can make videos and take pictures of people who are feeding stray dogs. Pictures of dog feeders are then posted on various WhatsApp groups. This is followed by a barrage of hate messages against the feeders. “They surreptitiously take our pictures and float it all over the place. You have no control where your pictures are going and what information is going out. They have given guards the right to click our pictures. So, when I am walking my dogs, some guard will randomly click my picture and post it on the Whatsapp group, ‘Chitra madam kutte le kar bahar jaa rahi hai.’ I feel so insecure. All my movements are being tracked,” said Chakravarty.
The hostility and threats often force these caregivers to go out in the middle of the night to feed the strays, just to avoid confrontation. Tenants who feed dogs inside the premises are picked upon, and their landlords are called up. “People look at us like we are doing something illegal and give us vicious looks while we are feeding. We are very responsible feeders. We also want our dogs to be fed in areas which aren’t frequented by people. Every society has such areas. We go like criminals in the middle of the night and look for places where there are no CCTVs installed to feed the dogs, just to avoid all this hassle,” said Shalini Dixit, a dog feeder in Noida.
“A dog feeder in my society was filmed feeding these dogs and she was even carrying her baby. If the dogs were violent, she wouldn’t be carrying the baby while feeding them. They circulated her video in our community chat groups. It’s very disheartening because it’s being projected as something illegal, that we are doing. They look at us with suspicion. People hit community dogs and when we stop them, they say that we are creating ruckus,” said Dixit.
In the year 2021, a dog feeder along with his wife, daughter and dog were surrounded by a mob of 250-300 people. These were residents of his condominium in Gurugram. “They held my family and me hostage in our car for about 6 hours. A large police contingment had to be called to get us out safely. This was all because there is one dog that lives inside the condominium complex, and they wanted to kick him out. Even though he is sterilised and vaccinated and I take care of him,” said Sumit Singla, a resident and dog feeder from Gurugram. “Dog or no dog, if we disagree over anything, one cannot commit an act that is illegal. There are other ways to sort this out.”
Importance of dog feeders for a successful ‘Animal Birth Control’ programme
Dog feeders are extremely crucial in ensuring a successful execution of the ABC (Animal Birth Control) programme. The ABC programme is specifically targeted to control numbers and end biting. There are three main reasons when biting can occur - mating season, during and after birth when females become protective of their babies, and with territorial fighting when dogs enter each other’s territory. “The ABC program eliminates all the reasons for dog biting; it reduces the numbers, and dogs are vaccinated. You have a ‘resident dog population’ that diminishes with time. They are healthy and harmless. The key to a successful ABC program is regular feeding. If only a dog is regularly fed, can it be made operation worthy. With regular feeding, animals become friendly and they are easy to catch and easy to be operated. It also makes it easy to identify because when you start feeding your dogs, you know them. This is the approach that feeders always want. These dogs will not allow other dogs to enter once they become your community dogs,” said Sonakshi Rana, a dog feeder from Gurugram.
Dog feeders even try to educate the residents on the importance of feeding stray dogs, responsibly. And mostly take up the responsibility and expenses for sterilisation. “ We try to feed dogs in areas that have minimum movement of people. It takes us 2-3 weeks to get their trust and then get their surgery done. If you are giving stray dogs, one meal a day, they are satisfied and happy. Very politely we try to tell people that let us feed and gain their trust. My mother and I, have sterilised some 300 dogs till now,” said Rana.
The author tweets at @Namyasinha
