While many individuals and animal lovers feed stray dogs in various localities of Dehradun, some despise this act of compassion. Such a situation can be seen in the Defence Colony where the society has decided to penalise those locals who feed the stray dogs in that area. Informing about this situation, local resident Neha Sharma who lives near the colony said that she has been feeding the stray dogs of the area regularly for a long time. “Some residents have told us many times not to feed these stray dogs citing the reasons like the area will get crowded with dogs or they might bite somebody if people like us continue to feed them like this,” said Sharma. According to her, it never bothered her much at that time because these were just words and the residents could not actually stop people from feeding the stray dogs as per Sharma. However, the guard stopped her a few days back when she was going to feed the dogs and did not allow her to feed them, informed Sharma. She added, “The society management has put up banners stating they will penalise people who feed the stray dogs and even warned about displaying their photographs. This is ridiculous. It is an offence to threaten people for feeding stray animals.” According to her, there are very few people who actually feed the stray animals and banners like these discourage such genuine animal lovers too.
On being asked why she has not filed any police complaint in this matter, Sharma stated that some people have tried to talk to the members of the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of Defence Colony but rather than having a conversation, they are avoiding them. She said that she has complained to Uttarakhand Animal Welfare Board (UAWB) on Wednesday and will complain to PETA India too and if this issue persists, she will file a police complain against the management of the Colony.
Meanwhile, the joint director of UAWB, Dr A Joshi informed that it is a constitutional right of every Indian citizen to protect and be compassionate to the living creatures in our environment. However, he also added that there is no direct violation of any State law by the RWA for not allowing people to feed the stray dogs in their locality but they are indirectly violating various rules by obstructing the procedure set by the government to manage stray dogs.
He said that animal lovers and NGOs that feed stray dogs are quite helpful while they are taken in centres for sterilisation and vaccination. He further added that the RWA of Defence Colony can set some rules to feed the stray dogs but it is not ideal to stop locals from feeding the stray dogs who are completely dependent on them for their food. Joshi stated that so far, the board has not received any written complaint regarding the matter but he will definitely take action on receiving the complaint as soon as possible.
Thursday, 12 November 2020 | PNS | Dehradun
