For this more than 60-year-old Charu Sharadha of Nedumangadu in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram city, this Xmas was a gloomy and traumatic one. This was because those 20 or so street dogs she had been feeding and caring like her own children for more than 7 years were snatched away from her by Nedumangadu municipality authorities.
Later when Charu Sharada came to know that they were locked up in a hall at Nedumangadu veterinary hospital without proper food or water, she was devastated. They were taken away in the name of rabid vaccination by dog catchers, deputed by the municipality.
According to sources some dog haters and a bunch of locals had complained to the municipality against this poor lady.
Their main complaint was that the dogs would chase or scare school children who pass through the footpath where the old woman is seen most of the time with her dogs cuddling against her. But activists of People for Animals, an NGO, say that many students were seen going to this woman with sweets and take a look at the dogs. “No bite incidents were reported from this place and this has been because her dogs were never hungry or provoked. The issue is created by a group of locals who hate dogs and this women,” said PFA trust board member Sree Devi S Kartha.
It may be recalled that even the Supreme Court had observed that street dogs can turn violent if they don’t get proper food and water.
Charu Sharada picks rags, old newspaper, cardboards from roadside and households and sell them for livelihood. She has no home, rests on the footpath and sleeps in front of some shop. She needs Rs 200 every day to buy rice, parotta, gravy and sometimes fish and meat for her dogs.
After coming to know about her dogs, Charu Sharada along with some PFA members rushed to the Nedumangadu vet hospital. The dogs started wailing as soon as they saw their mother, who called them by different pet names like vave, vellachy etc. The old woman also broke down, sat on the hospital veranda and started crying hearing the cries of her dogs.
“It was a heart rending moment. Some dogs were missing and when asked about this, hospital staff had no proper answer for that. If the dogs are not released from captivity, PFA will move legally against the municipality, added Sridevi.
Nedumangadu municipality health supervisor Ajaykumar said that decision to separate the dogs from her was taken to relocate her to some other place. “We have been receiving a lot of complaints against her. Some people and children are scared of dogs. Though no bite incident has been reported, we can’t take risk. If any dog bites, locals may even destroy our office,” he said
The dogs will be shifted to some shelter or released into some other wards in a day or two. As of now, we send our workers to give them food and water.
In between, an attempt was also made by the old woman’s rivals to brand her as a mentally unstable person. He was force fully taken to Peroorkkada mental hospital, but the doctors there discharged her as she was found to be sane.
Does this poor old woman and her loving dogs deserve such a punishment? Is she not spending almost all her earnings to stave off hunger of these voiceless creatures and thus teach society how to co-habit with animals peacefully?
Meanwhile, the dogs locked up in the vet hospital have been reportedly showing behavioural changes due to separation from their Charu Sharada mother as well lack of food and water.
“The intention of the municipality is to separate the dogs from the old woman and this is not an ideal solution. Charu Sharadha owns a barren 5 cent land at Vellanadu in Nedumangadu itself. If the Central or State govt could build a small house for her here under any of their housing schemes, this oldie and her doggies can live peacefully there for ever,” say animal activists.