India has 30 million stray dogs. One state is pushing vigilantes to kill them all
The Supreme Court has ordered Kerala to sterilise the street dogs. Kerala residents say they do not have the patience for that
The dog catcher tiptoes into a narrow lane carrying a metal wire noose. Someone had spotted a stray dog amid rows of coconut trees a few minutes ago.
“Finish that dog today,” one woman calls out from her porch. Another says the dog killed half the ducks in his farm. A third complains the dog has been growling at his 10-year-old son all week.
When he corners the skinny brown dog and tightens the wire around its neck, residents cheer and turn on their cellphone cameras. A few minutes later, he pulls out five puppies from under a log pile and stuffs them into a tight plastic bag. All the animals will eventually be killed.
In recent months, people in the southern Indian state of Kerala have declared a war on dogs.
Hundreds of street dogs have been killed in the past year across a state that calls itself “God’s own country,” and is a tourist magnet. Mobs routinely beat dogs to death or hire professional catchers to do the job. Recently a group of men killed several dogs and paraded through the streets with carcasses strung on a pole, dumping them in front of a public building.
The bitter man-canine conflict here has alarmed animal lovers across India and drawn sharp criticism from the country’s Supreme Court, which said this month that although dogs cannot become a “menace to society,” widespread killing was unacceptable.