'For the last two months, the menace of stray dogs has gone to scary proportions.'
'What will you do if you cannot walk on the road without fear?'
Youth Front (Mani) party workers led by Saji Manjakadambil killed 10 stray dogs and paraded their carcasses on the streets of Kottayam in Kerala.
It was a protest against Union Minister Maneka Gandhi who spoke in support of stray dogs when she visited Kerala.
According to a survey conducted by the state animal husbandry department, there are around 923,000 domestic dogs and 270,000 stray dogss in the state. There were 51,000 dog bites and four deaths in 2016.
Manjakadambil explains to Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier his reasons for such a gruesome protest.
You staged a protest with the bodies of 10 stray dogs. Was it because the authorities did not take steps to stop the stray dog menace in Kerala?
For the last two months, the menace of stray dogs has gone to scary proportions. A woman was bitten to death in Thiruvananthapuram, two women died after mad dogs bit them, small children sleeping inside their homes were dangerously bitten by stray dogs.
When these incidents occurred, we did a small protest in Thiruvananthapuram by killing the dogs that had become dangerous to human beings.
We didn't parade the bodies of stray dogs in Kottayam; what we did was a symbolic protest against Maneka Gandhi who asked us not to kill stray dogs.
She is the woman who wants to protect stay dogs when they are mercilessly killing innocent children. So, when she was here in Kerala, we wanted to bring the central government's attention to the menace Kerala is facing right now.
It was reported that you and other party workers tied the dogs' bodies to a wooden pole and took out a rally, shouting slogans against Maneka Gandhi...
Yes, we tied the bodies on a pole, but to send the image to her to let her know about our protest and the plight of the common man in Kerala.
No, there was no procession or any such thing. We just wanted to bring this problem to the attention of the central and state governments. It was a different kind of a protest; you can call it a symbolic action.
How did you kill the dogs?
It was the people who killed those dogs through various means; some people poisoned them and the aggressive ones were beaten to death.
You should understand that the people of Kerala are fed up of this menace, they want an end to this problem.
What will you do if you cannot walk on the road without fear?
The situation in Kerala is pretty dangerous. We are not the only people who are talking about it; every Keralite is fed up of this.
Even the Supreme Court has observed that you could kill stray dogs if they became dangerous to human beings.
It was reported that there were 2.7 lakh stray dogs in the state and so far in 2016, 51,000 people were bitten by stray dogs and four people have died.
These are scary statistics. What is the reason why suddenly these dogs have started attacking people?
The main reason why stray dogs are attacking people is because they do not get food these days.
Earlier, the waste from homes and hotels were thrown onto the streets and now that most of the streets are free of garbage, these dogs find nothing to eat. Most of the panchayats and residences see to it that waste is not deposited on the roads.
With the result, the hungry dogs started attacking vulnerable people for food.
Many people point out sterilisation as a solution to the problem...
It is not a solution at all. Who is going to sterilise all these dogs and where are they going to do it?
Another thing is, after sterilisation, they become even more aggressive. So, sterilisation is not the solution.
Is building shelters for strays a solution?
Not at all. It is not possible. When there are homeless people in the state, how can you expect the government to spend money, building shelters for dogs? No, it's not a practical solution at all.
There are many animal activists and agencies. Why can't they build shelters?
My question to Maneka Gandhi is why are you silent when people kill cows, goats, buffaloes, rabbits, pigs, and chickens? Why are you only bothered when people kill stray dogs that are dangerous to human beings?
I see the hands of pharmaceutical companies behind this.
Why?
We see a huge pharmaceutical mafia working here. It is said that anti-rabies medicines worth Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion) are sold in Kerala in a month. Is it not a huge amount?
After all, any person bitten by a stray dog whether it has rabies or not, will take the injection. Doctors also immediately ask you to take the injection.
The other day, a friend of mine had to take the anti-rabies injection when a stray dog scratched his foot. Nobody likes to take the risk in this matter.
When you have so many stray dogs on the streets, it is but natural that many people may go for the rabies medicine if something happens to them, even as a precautionary measure.
What is your next course of action?
We cannot have stray dogs on the streets. You have to find a solution to stop them from breeding on the streets and be a menace to common man.
We cannot accept if the state and central governments prefer to give more importance to the lives of stray dogs than human beings. Even the Supreme Court has said that human life is more important than the lives of stray dogs.
What we are planning to do now is catch all the stray dogs and deposit them in the houses of all the people who file cases against us and those animal lovers who want us to leave stray dogs free.
Let them have the dogs at home and let them take care of them.
We do not want stray dogs on the streets. That is for sure.
