Street Dogs of Nepal

Dear all,

I'm writing from Guwahati, where recently a very terrible incident

occured. We had a homeless country dog called Jimmy, living in our

locality, who was everyone's favourite and loved by all. One of the

most docile and loving dogs I've every seen. He has been there for

over 5 years. He was pampered with biscuits and tit-bits by almost

everyone in the locality. We have rented out few shops in our

compound, and whoever comes there feeds him and pets him. He spent

most of the time in front of our gate and at night slept in the

garage, which again has been rented out by us. He is fed by us and

the two boys who takes care of the garage. Till then he was as mild

and good-natured as ever and showed no signs of aggressiveness or

madness. On the 13th August, at around 7.00pm, I played with him for

sometime. At 9.00pm he was fed dinner by the garage boys. Around

10.00 pm when I went to my room, I heard his cries and ran out of my

house to find five young boys beating him with rods. They also got a

big cement boulder along with them, with which they hit him on his

head. I rushed and snatched a rod from one of the boys and asked them

to stop immediately. They said he should be killed as he's gone mad

and bitten one of the boys while feeding him biscuits. From the time

we've seen him and known him, he's never bitten anyone except if

they did anything wrong to him. Everyone who stays nearby feeds him

and pets him but never bit or gnarled at anyone. He once bit a drunk

man who tried to put a cigarette in his nose, (which is just so

natural!!!). Unfortunately, when I came to the spot and stopped the

boys, the damage was already done. He's so tame that he didn't even

know that he had to run away, as the boys used to feed him biscuits.

I guess they broke his skull first with the boulder and then beat and

poked him with rods. I called one of the garage boys, with whom he

used to stay at night, and my parents. We dabbed water on his head

and some into his mouth so that he could drink it. But he couldn't

get up, as he was bleeding from his mouth and eyes. The boys stay in

a hostel behind our house, and are probably doing their Degree

course. We came to know later that the boys tried to make him drink

alcohol, which made him bite one of them.

This inhuman act of cruelty has really jolted everyone in and around

our locality. We approached the PFA (People for Animals), but

couldn't generate much response. The concerned person asked us to

lodge an FIR and exhume the body. But isn't this their duty to do

whatever necessary, after being informed about any wrong doing

towards animals? In fact, this is the second time we've approached

them and didn't get any response. Don't you think this discourages a

common citizen, who wants to help homeless dogs, from taking any

steps against such cruelty if they don't get help from such

organisations who actually are trained and funded sufficiently? I

then approached PETA, and was very exhilarated when they responded

the same day. The next day, a representative came to our house and

asked me to write a letter to the DC. He met with a magistrate and is

taking all steps necessary. This has brought back hope finally. What

was done to Jimmy cannot be undone, but we can definitely work

towards stopping such acts occuring again.

I hope and believe you all will respond to my letter. We want to

teach the boys a lesson and that they are not the ones to decide if a

dog is mad or not and take his life. If they have no compassion

towards a small animal, will they ever be compassionate towards

humans also? And anyways, a dog doesn't become mad within an hour. A

mad dog doesn't fall at everyone's feet and lets his tummy to be

rubbed and pet, guards the locality and waits outside the gate to

welcome a person back home from office, in the evening, wait for

either me or my brother to be inside the house. The boys have been

under hiding as we haven't seen anyone of them after that night.

There are a few other dogs, one a prodigy of Jimmy, in the locality and we donot want them to face the same fate. Please advise what to do, as we don't wantour dogs to be killed so brutally just because they bit someone. And even ifthey've gone mad, there are other ways to tackle them, like putting them onleash or sending them to a proper shelter. Today they've killed a street dog,tomorrow they'll dare to kill our pet dog!! We want some steps taken to stopsuch cruelty and inhuman acts. It's time we changed our mentality and peoplearound us.

Hoping for a prompt response with a solution, and some assistance.

Thanks and regards,

Yasmin Ahmed

09954232203