Pandemic or no, feeding hungry stray animals is not universally accepted. That’s particularly troubling because rabies-infected dogs can transmit it through bites-and India has the world’s greatest number of rabies cases, up to 2 0,000 annually. Sharma says that the dogs now are growing more territorial and aggressive. Harshit Sharma has been putting out food for street dogs for a couple of years in Ghaziabad, a suburb of Delhi, India’s second-largest city with a population of over 11 million people. Things aren’t as peaceful in the country’s north. The dogs Lal sees are “more relaxed” and “sprawled all over the streets,” she says-because for once, there are no cars honking at them to move. In Puducherry, formerly Pondicherry, most of the city’s 240,000 residents are staying home. Then they get one meal, maybe, on the eighth day.” “There are dogs who go hungry for about seven days. Activists like her are doing everything they can, but it’s not enough, she says in a phone interview. Lal, a volunteer at Bark India Charitable Trust, sometimes stays out until 1 a.m. With shops and restaurants shuttered from March 25 until at least May 18, the canines’ main source of sustenance-garbage scraps-is gone.Īnticipating this problem, the Animal Welfare Board of India issued a letter two days before restrictions went into effect, declared feeding “companion and stray animals is an essential service.” The letter encouraged cities to allow people to feed street animals during the lockdown because without that aid, large numbers of animals would “suffer and die.”Ī number of other cities, including Delhi and Jaipur, are issuing "feeder passes" that permit people to leave their houses to care for street animals-such as dogs, cows, birds, and monkeys-mostly on their own dime. Lal is one of the animal lovers looking after India’s 35 million free-roaming dogs, many of which can’t find food during the world's largest lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19. Then she ventures out, during a nationwide stay-at-home order, to drop off the meals at various places around the southern Indian city of Puducherry. Another day, another 500 mouths for Sanjukta Lal to feed.Įach day, Lal prepares chicken and rice for scores of street dogs.
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