Kyiv's stray-dog dilemma
all an animal lover. I’ll concede that. I had a dog as a child, and when I’d toss a ball he’d pounce on it and growl if I came anywhere near him. So you might say I have a less than Doctor Doolittle-esque rapport with the animal kingdom.
That said, I respect the fact that there are those who find gratification in household pets. I don’t understand it, but I’m willing to respect it. If there are those who want to make themselves a servant to an animal with subhuman intelligence, that’s fine. Animals are, of course, living things and they are deserving of decent treatment.
But in the case of stray animals, human health and safety have to take precedence over the smarmy, New Age concern for the “sanctity of all living creatures.”
These beasts are living miserable mongrel lives. They forage desperately for food. They dart across traffic willy-nilly. They fight and fornicate at will and in so doing, simply perpetuate the problem. Stray animals should be rounded up and provided with suitable homes, if possible. But if this is not economically or practically viable, they should be destroyed.
The fuzzy-buddy image of poor little poochie, cowering in a corner, in need only of a little loving-care to return him to man’s best friend status is largely a myth. Most of these strays bear a greater resemblance to Cujo than Old Yeller.
If I was left on the street to sleep exposed to the elements, deprived of food and water, kicked at and despised by those around me, let me see how I would feel. Hmmm … You know what? I’D WANT TO KILL. I’d pose a danger to those around me.
And if I had a flicker of human cognition left, that killer instinct would be accompanied by an intense wish for someone to put me out of my misery. In the case of stray animals, we should respect those wishes. I’m not suggesting we make them into souvenir wallets, but that we dispose of them quickly and humanely, with as little pain and suffering as possible.
Call me cold. Call me insensitive. But you’ll see the light when one of these hounds from hell takes a bite out of Baby Volodya.
– Steven Shaklan
Steven, would you be willing to kill all those stray dogs yourself? I think not.
People always want to get rid of the things that irritate them, so long as they don’t have to do the dirty work.
There are organizations in the world that are dedicated to profiting from the problem of stray animals. While some of these organizations hit the streets and sterilize dogs and cats on the spot, others catch them and destroy them, and then go and turn the carcasses into fertilizers and pet food. Many win bids from city administrations, and there has been talk of holding a tender to see who will get to make money by killing stray dogs.
Although I have never owned a dog, I do know that animals can sense their doom coming. They can sniff out dogcatchers a mile away.
Understandably, this hostile, high-tech world that man has created combined with their life on the run can make dogs suspicious, afraid and aggressive.
How would you feel if you were continually harassed and hunted by men whose goal is to kill you?
Personally, I don’t think any creature deserves to live this way. In fact, many street dogs are both obedient and civilized. Quite often I’ve actually witnessed dogs stopping on a corner and waiting patiently for the light to turn green before crossing the street – which is more than I can say for most two-legged inhabitants of Kyiv.
Life on the street may be tough, but perhaps the most difficult period in a stray dog’s life are the days he spends on “death row” in a kennel waiting for that lethal injection. I’ve seen such places with my own eyes, and they’re dirty and smelly and filled with dogs that have been picked up by dogcatchers following orders from above – usally because some bigwig is due to visit Kyiv and the city administration want to present the “clean” face of the capital. Knowing the animals won’t be around for much longer, authorities have little incentive to make their last days or even hours even remotely pleasant, or humane.
And as far as the dogs’ resemblance to Cujo goes, considering the hellish lives their forced to lead, it’s not hard to imagine how they end up looking like something straight from hell.
The point is that it’s all too easy to say get rid of the dogs without lifting a finger to address the roots of the problem.
– Evgenia Mussuri
Do you dig dogs? But what about when the stray variety begin colonizing your courtyard? Should a thought be spared for the state of the capital’s stray-dog population, should resources be directed to ease their suffering or should we just get on with the business of building the country and thank goodness for the cheap pet food? Is Steven cold or simply being realistic, and should dogs who obey traffic lights be spared the fate of their less-intelligent, mangy bretheren? Let us know what you think by sending a response of no more than 200 words to [email protected]. Best answer wins a lunch for two at Time Out. Answers must be received by Monday, July 30.
