NEW DELHI, Sept 29: Delhiites are increasingly abandoning their old and sick dogs – pushing them out of their cars on the streets or dumping them outside the few animal shelters in the city.
Environmentalist Bahar Dutt was out on an evening walk with her dog when she spotted an ivory coloured Labrador with a bloated stomach, wailing and limping in the middle of the road. She took the dog to an animal shelter for a check-up and learnt that the dog had a heart condition.
“The vet said Suzie had an enlarged heart and that is why her stomach was bloated. I decided to bring her home,” Dutt told.
Suzie, said to be between 6 and 8 years, was probably abandoned because of her heart condition. “She is doing well after the medication and can even climb stairs now. I am sure had her original owners given her timely medical aid she wouldn’t have to be dumped.”
Suzie was lucky to have found a forever home with Dutt – an unlikely fate for most dogs.
Scores of old and sick Labradors and other pedigrees – with treatable maggot wounds and skin diseases – are being abandoned on the sly on the capital’s roads.
Ajaydeep Singh, an IT consultant who runs Voice of Voiceless, has given a home to many homeless dogs, mostly ageing pedigrees.
A four-month-old Labrador diagnosed with distemper was dropped off at his home. “It was a well-to-do man who dropped off the pup. He had the money to get the pup treated, but didn’t want to,” said Singh.
In another case, he gave home to a two-year-old abandoned Labrador, who was later found to have two tumours.
“We got her treated and she has been with me for three years.”
Sonya Ghosh, an Assistant Professor at Delhi University, recently reported three dogs that were dumped by a woman near Vasant Kunj.
“Street vendors witnessed the entire incident but were too stunned to stop the vehicle, it happened too fast. Two of the dogs were wearing collars,” said Ghosh, a co-opted member of Animal Welfare Board of India, who has since been feeding the dogs at the same spot.
Animal activist Amritika Phool blames the menace on breeders. “It is usually the older dogs – both males and females – that are abandoned. They have outlived their purpose of procreating and the breeders do not want to be saddled with them any more,” she explained.
Pups, too, are dumped as soon as genetic deformities get manifested. “The genetic pool is the same for the pedigrees which should not be bred in the first place. When there are medical abnormalities the puppies are conveniently abandoned.”
Then there are cases when couples decide to give up on their pets when they plan a family. “Suddenly the human baby becomes the focus of all attention. The pet is no longer needed in the household,” Phool said.
Asked what makes people so heartless and cruel, senior psychologist Aruna Broota said, “Very few people have the heart for pets. These people also do not have a heart for humans. These values are instilled by the family. Smallness or large-heartedness is a trait handed down from family.”
There are also cases of pets being given to children as birthday presents, or as companions for summer vacations. The children get tired of their ‘gifts’ easily and the pets are either returned to shelters or dumped by the roadside. (PTI)
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