Features
Retired police dogs: a contrary opinion
From the very beginning of the controversy over the auctioning of police dogs who were retired from their sniffer duties, my opinion was different to that expressed by writers in the print media All the opinions I read were that auctioning the retired dogs was cruel, inhuman, and shows ingratitude to the dogs who had served the police so faithfully and would be painfully separated from their caring handlers. This, plus broadening the subject to euthanasia of dogs and cruelty to other animals was well expressed by Dr D Chandraratna, writing form Australia, I presume, in the The Island of August 25, under the title Dogs also feel pain of mind. The active animal protection society in Kandy – Kaws –also expressed its view on this issue.
A dedicated animal lover’s opinion
Worriedly concerned about me thinking the auctioning had its plus points and was an uncruel necessity, I phoned a cousin in Kandy who had truly devoted her life to the dogs and cats she reared of various breeds including several pups and kittens left willfully by merciless owners at her gate. Injured and emaciated pups she rescued off the street, and cared for them equally with her pedigreed pets, spending much on them. A specialist physician, the attention showered on her animals has come a very close second to the care she gives her patients, maybe even surpassing it sometimes.
Her animals have been her children: fed expensively; cared for by a well paid, live-in man employed especially for the job; along with constant visits to the Peradeniya Vet Hospital. She eats any veggie food but devotes much attention to what she gives her animals, spending lavishly. She once advertised a reward for a Siamese cat she had lost and went to a girl possessed of special powers who correctly ‘diagnosed’ why she had arrived to consult her and gave explicit directions to a house that held the cat prisoner. She scoured the suburbs of Kandy on many evenings, unsuccessfully. Finally a boy was at her gate who knew where the cat was held prisoner and won the Rs 4000 she had offered – a very handsome reward 25 years ago.
All this to show my cousin knows what she talks about and had given the matter at hand some thought. She refrained from temptation of buying at the auction since she says she is now too advanced in years to acquire new pets. She categorically said that no harm was done to the police dogs by auctioning them since they went to good homes. Why this assumption of good homes? None other than an affluent person/family would spend Rs 23,000 to Rs 100,000 to buy a sniffer Alsatian or Labrador. (These were the lowest and highest winning bids in the Kandy auction). Also none other than a genuine animal lover who cares for pets would take the risk of spending up to a lakh to buy a grown dog and one trained by the police.
This cousin never fails to remind me not to consume fish, flesh or fowl. I am off most. But my reassurances fall short of her expectations of total vegetarianism; caring as she does so much for animals.
Additional pros to selling the retired dogs
True, the auctioned dog will be parted from his handler who we believe has been good to it. Psychology and feelings of the animal are fronted as a reason for not auctioning the animals but animals too are capable of adjusting – like humans, and there is a strong likelihood that the new owner may be better and more caring than the police handler who was paid to do the job. We know of mahouts who have been cruel to that gentlest of animals – the elephant. Often the man imbibed too much and neglected his ‘care’. The elephant remembers and we’ve heard of such cruel mahouts being done to death by the grudge bearing animal.
Retired horses left neglected to graze is a sad business – the speedsters left to mooch around in deserted fields. Maybe the retired police dogs will be kenneled too long; may not get sufficient loving care needed, more when they are old and useless workwise, and even coerced to sniff and chase. They will in all probability have a comfortable retirement in a loving home where they may be the single pet. In an adopted home they may actually have a happier life; played with by children and shown care and love by many, all the time. A dog is true to its master while a cat is true to herself and body comforts and the home she lives in. But dogs will respond to human kindness and those who buy police dogs at auctions may well be better replacements for the ex-handlers.
The economics of the business have been heavily criticized. Some have said the police makes money out of animals it got service from, once they are old. Dr Chandraratna compared the auctioning of retired police dogs to shoving old parents in ‘Homes’ salving their conscience by sons and daughters shielding themselves with the ethical premise the old parents would be happier in Homes for Senior Citizens. This being happier may well be the case.
Selling the retired dogs seems abhorrent to many. Not to me and my cousin. The police like our government is now strapped for money. By auctioning the dogs who cannot be trained of are retired after years of service, the police will eliminate one expense – maintaining animals of no further use – and also earn money which could be used for very good purposes like aiding widows of police personnel who died in service or educating police persons’ children.
Cruelty to other animals
Snares cruelly set by humans have recently caught many leopards with their population increasing. Elephants whose territory has been invaded by man have been shot dead or worse, maimed in jaws and legs. Garbage with ‘silisili’ bags continues to be strewn around and consumed by animals. However, many elephants have been rescued when fallen in pits and wells by villagers and wild life personnel. But cruelty surpasses the concern and care shown.
The time I was shocked by man’s cruelty was during a meditation retreat in a wonderful centre way up high in Hindagala, Kandy. Going to my room in the evening I noticed a fire raging in an adjoining hill. Alarmed, I questioned a person very familiar with the place. “The villagers have deliberately set fire to the grassland.””Why on earth?” “To get roasted hare and maybe a wild boar to eat.” I just could not believe man’s greed for flesh further degraded to that level.
Post Script
We hope the Animal Welfare Bill prepared by the Law Commission of Sri Lanka in 2006 and presented in Parliament as a Private Member’s Bill by Ven Athureliye Ratana Thera, MP then, in 2010 will finally be debated and passed as an Act to supersede the archaic Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance No 13. 1907 with the establishment of an Animal Welfare Authority