Whenever RWA members want to beat out stray dogs or stop feeding of animals , they will put up a simple reason..we fear for our children. If only you would have been more responsible and got animals sterilised in your locality , no such situation of multiplying dogs would have come up (like where I live where I spent a decent amount of money every month to handle sterilisation and care of animals) but no, their solution is , beat them out . Irresponsible and selfish people.
Recently an incident came to light about 11 new born puppies disposed of in a plastic bag and now another incident has come up in which a housing society in Mumbai has imposed a rule of “not to feed stray dogs.”
A 45-year-old woman was interrupted by a society resident while she was feeding a stray dog in the housing complex building. The co-operative housing society issued a blanket of notice to all residents by declaring it as a ‘rule’ which doesn’t allow pet owners/dog lovers to feed the stray dogs in the complex.
Rule To Not To Feed Stray Dogs
It was around 11 p.m. when the old lady Shaheen Sayyed went out with her 18-year-old daughter to feed a stray pup in her housing complex based on Mira Road. Another resident of the same housing complex interrupted them and asked them to not to feed stray dogs.
Animal lover Shaheen Sayyed said, “This is an on-going problem in my housing complex. Any dog feeder who feeds stray dogs is stopped and intimidated by him and other members of the society. He has a history of stopping people from feeding stray dogs and he did the same with me on the night I went to feed a small puppy in my complex premises. He hurdled abuses at me and then a gang of 15 more people joined him and supported him. I was scared as I was accompanied by my 18-year-old daughter and knew nothing how to handle the situation. It was disrespectful and also illegal of them to stop me from feeding the stray puppy.”
According to the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI)
It is a moral responsibility on the part of every citizen to feed the stray animals and no one can stop animal feeders from feeding the strays. However, it also advocates a middle path for residents association and animal lovers to carve out a middle path by designating a fixed spot for pets to be fed and poop in the housing society to maintain peaceful co-existence with animals. However, majority of residents cry foul of the discomfort caused by the number of strays.
SEE ALSO : High Court Approved Guidelines For Feeding Stray Dogs
A concerned resident of the society, Santosh Tiwari said, “There were only 3-4 stray dogs inside the complex premises around two years back. But, their numbers have multiplied since then and today, there are about 25-30 of them. Our children fear moving inside the complex compound at night.”
He also mentioned that no one really is an animal hater, but the animal lovers need to behave responsibly. He also advocated a solution to the problem.
“Only if the animal lovers feed the strays outside the complex compound, the strays would not linger inside and residents wouldn’t have problem with it,” added Tiwari.
A police complaint has been lodged against the accused in the Kashimira police station in Mira Road under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 504 for insult intending to provoke breach of the peace and section 506 for criminal intimidation.
Hiranmay Karlekar