Investigation & Analysis Category

(This article examines the sequence of events of the last month as unfolding in Kashmir, with publicly available information) Kashmir, is a know ‘dog killing’ state with poisoning being the ‘favored method. The Animal Birth Control (ABC/ Spay-neuter)  program has been mired in controversy from the beginning and the complicated situation has been reported on these pages, including a request by the Govt to fund the ABC program to make dog pounds at a cost of INR 950 crores (US$ 200 Million)! But more than that the real contention lies atRead More

A news article in the Hindustan Times dt 10 May 2012 headlined “Dog sterilization to take a hit in New Delhi”says ‘With the trifurcation of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the drive to sterilize dogs in the Capital has hit a roadblock in the north and east corporations. The cash-strapped corporations would have to put the drive on hold for a couple of months as there is not a single dog sterlisation facility available within their jurisdiction.’  A Municipal Corporation office is quoted as saying “It would be veryRead More

Rescue, text and pictures – Naina Athale a Navi Mumbai based activist. Naina is a PhD scholar and is a member of the Managing Committee of In Defense of Animals (IDA), co-opted member of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) and member of the Advisory Board of The Voice of Stray Dogs. December 2006 , Navi Mumbai. I received a call from a horrified bank employee who could not describe what she had seen. She said she was in a daze all the way home from her office atRead More

This is a series of posts on Kashmir where getting a head-start into writing has been a nightmare since it seems a highly personalized polarized situation. So we’d refrained comment without any clear evidence in our hands. However now we’re in possession of a bunch of official documents – which we’re digitizing and putting out and asking the relevant questions that arise from them. As with the other writing on ‘The Voice of Stray Dogs’, unless otherwise specified, the article is authored by Rakesh Shukla and expresses the opinion ofRead More

Sources of the text and pictures: Gadhimai Festival on Wikipedia, Enrico Fabian’s eyewitnes account of Gadhimai 2009, Richard Bull’s eyewitness account of Gadhimai 2009 Gadhimai Mela is considered the biggest single animal sacrifice on our planet. This centuries-old tradition is observed every five years in Gadhimai premises located in the village of Bariyapur of Bara District of Nepal near the border with India. In the 2009 ‘festival’ at between 250,000 – 500,000 animals were sacrificed. The next Gadhimai Mela will be in 2013! About 5 million people participate in theRead More

The State of J&K is the only one in the country which has not adopted the Indian Veterinary Act 1984. The result is extremely poor veterinary education standards and lack of genuine regulations governing Veterinary practices besides deprivation of VCI recognition to SKUAST Veterinarians. In other words for any misconduct and deviation, experimentation on animals, or failed surgeries or cruelty, AWBI cannot enforce and SKUAST is not liable to any action under VCI Rules (the touchstone of ABC Rules 2001). So why is this important? Because SKUAST is the agencyRead More

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At least 5,000 baby goats are reported to have been slaughtered at a temple festival at Poosariyur near Anthiyur on Friday, the 27th of April, 2012. Their blood is reported to have been consumed by the priests, and a number of devotees & “.. meat was distributed free of cost to all…” Apparently, all of this was done, and is done, to invoke the blessings of the deity, and to usher in prosperity. Eating the meat, it is believed “..will provide protection from chronic diseases…” This is obviously a regression,Read More

This is a series of posts on Kashmir where getting a head-start into writing has been a nightmare since it seems a highly personalized polarized situation. So we’d refrained comment without any clear evidence in our hands. However now we’re in possession of a bunch of official documents – which we’re digitizing and putting out and asking the relevant questions that arise from them. As with the other writing on ‘The Voice of Stray Dogs’, unless otherwise specified, the article is authored by Rakesh Shukla and expresses the opinion ofRead More

In Doddanekundi, in the South-East of Bangalore almost at the cities edge there is a large empty plot of land. This vast stretch of approx 160 acres is behind the Gourakshan-shala (cow preservation society) of  Doddanekundi. There is piles of cow dung burnt every day – the ‘waste’ from the cow society. The residents of this area include 3 huge camels – an unusual sight in Bangalore (its unusual all right on the roads of Bangalore, let alone as ‘wild’ animals) and dogs! All dogs are unsterilized. The dogs haveRead More