A video went viral showing a family of three hurling verbal abuses and throwing slippers at a woman named Priya Chauhan, at Nagawara, in Bengaluru on Sunday. According to Priya's tweet, the family had objections about her feeding stray dogs and had been harassing her for the past three years.
A case has been filed against the abusers seen in the video, under IPC sections 341(Wrongful restraint), 324(Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 355 (Assault or criminal force with intent to dishonour person), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (Criminal intimidation), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).
In the video, it can be seen that a fight started between the family and Priya, who was with her friend. A man can be heard saying to Priya that, “If you want to feed dogs go feed them in your house.” He adds to this by saying she is not from there and comes from somewhere else. He also can be seen throwing his slipper at her after she asks another older woman, presumably the man's mother, if she is uneducated.
There have been similar reports of dog feeders being attacked in the recent past. Due to the pandemic, with many markets and restaurants shut down, stray dogs that were dependent on the waste produce and meals have been going hungry. And citizens who have taken it upon themselves to feed these dogs are being attacked. This is in spite of a circular issued for resident welfare associations by the Karnataka Government Secretariat on July 13, 2020 that says, “Threatening, harassing, banning or abusing feeders for feeding stray animals is tantamount to a very grave offense of criminal intimidation. Feeding stray animals is not against the law. It is the right and duty of every citizen to feed and care for stray animals.”
The circular also mentions that dogs can only be sterilised and released back to where they were taken from and provides a guideline of how to stay safe and prevent attacks by stray dogs, further mentioning that the dogs are more scared of humans than humans are of them. Also, it speaks about not instigating them.
“Firstly feeding dogs is completely legal. And secondly, those who do feed dogs are serving the community by preventing them from ransacking the trash to find food which leads to fights. Also feeding is a means to an end as it helps the caregivers get the dogs vaccinated / sterilised, thereby protecting the community,” said Gayatri Balaji, an animal rights activist in Bengaluru. “If anything they must be encouraged. Another thing to point out is that all of these people feed dogs out of their own pocket so this kind of behavior against dog feeders is not correct.”
There have been concerns in the past from residents about the presence of stray dogs. Especially when incidents of persons being attacked by a pack of dogs have been reported. And though the BBMP has an Animal Birth Control Programme in place to sterilise stray dogs and release them back in the same place that they were taken from, this programme has not been implemented successfully in many places. With the BBMP having been largely ineffective in helping the stray animal population in the city, citizens have been forced to step in, and oftentimes it is these very same citizens who wrongly, face abuse and anger from other residents.