THE RAPACIOUS SHAME OF SRINAGAR ABC.

Dear All,

Those that find this e-mail long please don’t even bother to read. Don’t enter into any frivolous, self-righteous correspondence with me. Beware – I will give you as good as I get – whosoever you are!! This is too much of a tragedy for me to brook any non-sense.  This is an ode for all those that would have us believe that the sterilization center set up at the SKUAST Veterinary College, premises at Srinagar was some kind of an achievement and a model hub of excellence and some kind of National resource asset that would lead by example. I had been voicing my strongest and well founded apprehensions of this being farthest from the truth. I was labeled as an enemy of the cause then. This should shame them if there is any humanity left in them still. I am releasing the evidence across the world on net, media and otherwise. Rest assured non one is getting scot-free here.

Horrendous accounts of abject animal cruelty and the ABC being done in rapacious abuse of medical procedure and against all ethics and canons of civilized behaviour were pouring out from SKUAST all along. My hands were tied. Since, no monitoring Committee was inbuilt into the MoU and I was specifically singled out from any and all activity related to the ABC the doors of SKUAST were literally shut on me by our very own – the Mutual Admiration Club (The MAd Club). However the State Animal Husbandry Ministry headed by a young dynamic Minister, just reframed the SPCA headed by the D.M Srinagar some days back and I was nominated as a member on it.

The temperatures in the Valley are now sub zero and ABC surgery of the kind that SKUAST “specializes” in, is brutally killing the dogs by another name. Past two days running I kept trailing the SMC catching and release vehicle only to find that dogs taken in on one day in these sub zero temperatures are left sutures open and wounds infected on the very next day. I had requested Dr Makhdoomi the head at SKUAST ABC, to stop the surgeries forthwith and concentrate on prophylactic AVR instead in the intervening four months of severe winter. That did not happen. So yesterday I visited SKUAST and spent the whole day there. I was shocked at the barbarity meted out to the dogs there. Most of them were dazed and half dead on day two of surgery. The video and photographic evidence tell their own gory tale and what I saw puts GHMC to shame in comparison. This is an illustrative not exhaustive account:

1. The kennels have not been cleaned for months. Post-op dogs lie in feces, urine and cess pool of blood in severe winter conditions with night  temperatures of minus 2C which will dip further. Most have inflammation, bleeding and serious infections immediately thereafter.

2. The dogs that were brought out of the O.T and should have been under sedation were conscious and howling, crying and writhing in pain and shock. Sutures open in most cases. No proper sedative was given and surgery done under mild dose of Xylazine & calmpose. From a distance you would think it was a large animal like a horse distress crying at the peak of his voice. Video with heart rending audio of this follows. No para-vet or Vet ever sees the dogs for administering pain-killer or antibiotic from the so called surgery to release. Two died immediately in my presence within 3 hours of operation. To the rest I got pain killers administered.

3. Surgeries are carried out by totally inexperienced ineligible Veterinarians who have no regard or idea of protocols, under the most unhygienic conditions. They told me on video that this is a lowly, menial social service they are doing and should not be questioned on protocols etc. The theater is littered with feces, blood and toxic waste. The dogs suffer hypo-thermia immediately thereafter. Video of shock and hypothermic shivering follows.

4. The handlers pull the dazed dogs by their limbs sutures open and toss them onto the SMC vehicle and throw them back at random. No location-wise record of capture or release exists.

5. The dogs are not fed at all from captivity to release. No water either. The stock register is flush with eggs, milk, bread, et al. Not a grain exists practically.

6. The surgeries are carried out under candle light mostly. See photographs & Video of OT table. The Vet College is located in a Village that has no electricity for most part of winter.

7. The ear notching is done by burning the tip of the dog’s ear with candles. See photographs.

8. Three dogs escaped into the adjoining village while being led into kennels. The handlers are shy and unable to touch them – attribute this to beliefs and religious edict ?? The villagers told me it’s a daily affair.

9. The untrained para vets end up wounding the genitals of the dogs in pre-op preparation with stained and weeks old shaving blades. Post op at least four dogs piled up one on top of the other are brought out in whole sale lots and simply dumped in the death trap kennels.

For now I would strongly advise the AWBI not to blot its mandate, quash its sanction to the Srinagar ABC forthwith, blacklist the SMC and SKUAST immediately and bring the delinquent Vets and SKUAST to book. Even if by invoking the VCI. Dr D M Makhdoomi should be got sacked by the VC here and now. The High Court should be informed in the next hearing that no ABC at least in its present form and until the onset of summer is possible. Recourse to mass AVR can be offered as an interim solution that will ward off the threat and hazard of rabies.

More follows.

(JAVED IQBAL)