Auction that shook nation’s conscience

Monday 17th August, 2020

Police officers are not auctioned when they reach the retirement age, are they? They are given pensions instead. Not even shirkers and rogues in the police or any other public institution are sold by the state when they are long in the tooth. But the government has no qualms about auctioning retired sniffer dogs that have done the Police Department proud.

The police, on Saturday, auctioned 25 sniffer dogs which had served the department faithfully before being retired. They are about 10 years old and in need of special care. All the canines so sold have helped the police track down drug dealers, robbers, murderers and other such lawbreakers and trace missing persons. The state has earned about Rs. 315,000 by way of proceeds from the shameful dog auction, we are told. What’s this world coming to when the Police sell their dogs to raise funds?

We did not know that the newly elected government was so broke as to sell dogs in the police kennels! This deplorable act has shaken the nation’s conscience!

Gratitude is something extremely rare in this country, where some aged parents are put into kennels, and the ageing canines in the police service are thrown out of their kennels! We must be ashamed as a nation.

Police dogs are emotionally attached to their trainers and cannot adapt to a new life in their twilight years, when they need comfort and companionship. There is no guarantee that they will not undergo suffering at the hands of their new owners who have not been screened, as an animal rights activist points out in her letter on the opposite page.

This is not the first time the police kennel division has been in the news for the wrong reason. In 2002, its chief, SP Kulasiri Udugampola together with some other servile cops raided an army safe house at the Millennium City, Athurugiriya, claiming that the military intelligence personnel operating from there were conspiring to assassinate the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. That raid exposed the identities of the army long rangers who had conducted deep penetration operations in the LTTE-controlled areas and killed Prabhakaran’s close friend, Shankar among others; the Tiger leaders had confined themselves to their bunkers for fear of being targeted. Most of the military intelligence operatives died at the hands of the Tigers following the raid, and the army’s long range operations suffered a massive setback as a result. Saturday’s dog auction has tarnished the image of the Police Kennels again.

Even a police chief whose failure to neutralise a terrorist threat in spite of receiving a large number of intelligence warnings of impending attacks led to the destruction of hundreds of lives has received retirement benefits and is leading a comfortable life. But the police dogs that have rendered an excellent service and helped safeguard public safety have been denied that kind of treatment which they richly deserve.

Sri Lankans pay through the nose to maintain politicians notorious for betraying public trust. These rogue elements have sold national assets, lined their pockets and are in league with drug dealers and other such anti-social characters. But they are given pensions and taken care of in retirement. Even some officers of the Police Narcotic Bureau have been exposed for their deals with drug czars. But the police dogs have served the nation faithfully. In fact, they have performed their duties and functions much better than their human counterparts. So, they must be taken care of in their old age.

The police must be made to bring back the canine heroes auctioned on Saturday and keep them in the official kennels. The state is duty bound to ensure that they are given shelter, food and veterinary care until they go the way of all flesh.