Everyone around me thinks stray animals are dangerous and are scared to shelter them or even go near them. If you ask a stray animal, it will have similar feelings for the human beings. The difference is, while very few of us have actually interacted with strays, most strays come across at least one human being every few weeks who treats them badly, beats them, pelts them with stones, runs down their friends by car and never stops to look, some stuff them in trucks and send them to the butchers, others pour hot oil on them. So then you tell me – who is the monster – the stray or the human being?
I will give you a small example. In my locality, there are two bitches and a dog. Earlier I was scared of being bitten by them and would keep a safe distance from them. But then two years back my father gifted a dog to me. Reluctant to begin with, I grew to adore him – he is loving and adorable, he never bites – only licks. This motivated me to reach out to the strays as well, animals aren’t all that bad after all!
I started feeding dogs in front of my house. Our neighbours didn’t like the idea I guess. They tried stealing the bowl, but could not. Many a times they taunted me and asked me to stop the activity, I stood firm. Next they started removing the bowl from its place. One day, when they were doing so I was playing outside. I saw it, however being much younger, did not raise my voice. I just told them that I was feeding the dogs in front of my house, and they had no right to prevent me from doing so.
From that day on, they haven’t uttered a word. They still don’t approve of it but they don’t interfere in the feeding. Looking at them it struck me – the need is not to abuse the animals on streets, the need is to kill the animal within.
Auhtor: Shreya Chibba
