The Supreme Court ruling directing the Delhi government, MCD and NDMC to remove the stray dogs from the streets of Delhi within eight weeks has prompted a heated debate with former Union Minister and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi among those criticising the decision.
After her first reaction to the ruling, calling it “impractical”, “financially unviable” and “potentially harmful, she has now cited a historical instance from the 1880s’ Paris when a similar step was taken to prevent dog biting and, spread of rabies.
What happened in Paris in 1880s?
In the 1880s, the authorities in Paris saw dogs as a threat to the city’s health, safety, and cleanliness, as they were the transmitters of rabies-like diseases and were always occupying the streets.
The authorities decided to remove them from the streets, and a mass-scale slaughter of dogs started in 1983 in the name of controlling diseases like rabies. Soon after the mass slaughter of dogs and cats, there was an unprecedented rise in the number of rats in the city.
The rise of rats and the removal of dogs and cats was believed to be linked because the canines are anti-rodent. They kill the rats to feed on them, which is generally seen as nature’s way of balancing the species by linking them to a food cycle.
Maneka Gandhi issues warning?
Gandhi further warned that the removal of dogs will not solve the problem, as within 48 hours, 3 lakh dogs will come to Delhi from Ghaziabad and Faridabad because there is food in Delhi.