Stray Animals Are Not Playthings To Be Casually Abused
A recent incident that made me shout at a longtime contact highlights the callousness and inhumanity with which some treat stray animals
Warning: This article contains disturbing descriptions of animal abuse. Please read with caution.
India has the highest population of stray dogs in the world, with some estimates, according to the Humane Society of the United States, putting the number at 70 million. So ubiquitous are strays here, in fact, that when I visited Germany last month, I stopped mid-stride on day three and went: ‘Hang on. Where are all the strays?’ That entire trip, I did not spot one.
But back home, there is a stray who lives on my street. I call her Khepu (rhyming with gray-pooh), a play on the Bengali word khepa (the e is pronounced as the a sound from that), whose meaning lies somewhere between crazy and unpredictable. But here, for convenience, she is K.
One stormy night, she came to our street, wounded, seeking shelter, and the caretakers two buildings down the street let her in. They fed her. Treated her.
The storm ended. But K never left.
