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This article published on 22nd June, 2012 is reprinted with permission by ‘The Voice of Stray Dogs’ with minor edits and formatting changes but no ‘editorial’ changes. This article shows clearly that while there is a clear lawful demarcation of buffalo and cow meat and only cow meat can be termed beef, and while beef export is banned from India – in actual practice there is flourishing trade of both buffalo and cow meat locally and for exports with full knowledge and connivance of the Union of India and itsRead More

For decades, Kerala and West Bengal where cow slaughter is legal, are the sink-holes of cattle from across the country – where they are brought to packed in trucks, sometimes with legs broken so they can be dumped one on top of the other and be even more tightly packed and brought in 1000 mile forced marches from as far as UP, Punjab and Rajasthan into West Bengal. It is ironical that cows not just be given for slaughter in a country that considers cow to be ‘holy, but thatRead More

Earlier in June 2012 FIAPO tried to bust an multi-million dog fighting racket under powerful political patronage in the Punjab hinterland, with a Rs 10,000 reward for ‘information’! In this bid to perhaps stay relevant, or perhaps gain relevance, Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations (FIAPO) managed to do what most any kind of bungling would not do – it managed to shut down most all Facebook profiles and conversations on dog fights in the rural Punjab. It was these very online communities that were being monitored and data maintainedRead More

Over the last few months we have carried a series of articles on AWBI’s action in Kashmir that left out any Animal Welfare Organization (AWO) and went ahead with a tripartite MOU with SKUAST and SMC. Even the existing Kashmir SPCA was kept out of the picture. Now it turns out that AWBI action in Kashmir is not isolated but seems like a well thought out approach of leaving out AWO’s from ABC implementation in India. This goes against the grain of the ABC (Dog Rules, 2001). This is strangeRead More

This is a series of posts on Kashmir. As with the other writing on ‘The Voice of Stray Dogs’, unless otherwise specified the writing expresses the opinion of  The Voice of Stray Dogs, and not necessarily that of VoSD Board members since individual comment/ contribution and consent is neither sought nor received. These pictures are from yesterday from downtown Srinagar where a dog investigates its poisoned brother, and walks away. The name of the photographer is being withheld on request. Even as AWBI kept tom-toming about the ABC MOU withRead More

The entire proceedings of the conference including presentations and video’s of speakers will be made available here. This is the 2nd  edition of the this information being available for Activists for Stray Dogs to leverage on. Proceedings of The Voice of Stray Dogs Conference & Panel Discussion on Catalyzing Activism for Stray Dogs, Bangalore, 26 May 2012: Introduction by Rakesh Shukla, Founder, The Voice of Stray DogsRead More

(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

Imagine a charity in another country raising a thousand dollars, without you even asking for it (but of course you need it) and you get a check in mail your mail! Yesterday we get a check in our mail with a small handwritten note that this is from ‘Keep Talking’.  ‘Keep Talking’ based in Perth, Australia had raised A$1122/ Rs 58,900 through a veg BBQ for ‘The Voice of Stray Dogs’, last month. Based in Perth, Keep Talking was founded by Christine Ringrow in response to the treatment of cattleRead 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