Kerala’s Dog-Culling Order

For the better part of July, the government of Kerala has been courting controversy for its radical decision to solve a man-animal conflict. Owing to the steady increase in cases of stray dogs attacking people across the state, the state’s government recently declared that it will tackle the problem by terminating the lives of dogs that create a ‘nuisance’, a move that has enraged animal rights activists across India.

The problem of a dog menace isn’t new to God’s Own Country. However, it has grown disproportionately over the years. News reports peg the count of dog bites as having risen from 1,600 cases in 2014 to 40,000 in just the past eight months. Most victims in these cases happen to be joggers and minors.

Cracking a whip, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy earlier this month declared the adoption of a two-pronged approach in solving the problem: capturing and sterilising stray dogs and killing those that are the most troublesome of the lot. It is the latter that has got civil society up in arms, as activists immediately sniffed an absence of clear guidelines on identifying dogs that create a ‘nuisance’, which could result in arbitrary killings. Some environmentalists have argued that a large-scale culling exercise would create an environmental imbalance.

The issue acquired a new colour after citizens lodged protests across the country and in some other parts of the world. To ensure that their voice is heard, they decided to hit the state where it hurts by launching online petitions to boycott Kerala as a tourism destination. Even as this campaign continues to gain traction online, Chief Minister Chandy has refused to back down from his stance, insisting that all he meant was that stray dogs infected with rabies be done away with.

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