Colombo breaks new ground on humane treatment of animals

Ramesh MULGAMPOLA

The SAARC Summit is over. There are and will be questions in many quarters whether all the expenditure on it could be justified, and rightly so.

There were achievements in the unanimous condemnation by member nations of all forms of terrorist violence, and the deep concern expressed over the serious threat posed by terrorism to the peace, stability and security of the region. Related to this was the finalization and signing of the SAARC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.

Another achievement was the agreement on a common policy on Food Security, as well as the agreement to coordinate action to meet the issues of fuel security and climate change, which are inter-related. These are signs that SAARC is at last moving from the period of declarations to that of implementation, and it is upto Sri Lanka being the current Chair of SAARC, to give proper leadership to make this a reality.

Apart from these major issues, one cannot help noting that the 15th SAARC Summit had another significant achievement in that it brought into focus the humane policy of Sri Lanka towards the eradication of rabies and dog population control.

This was indeed a major step forward in keeping with the cultural traditions of Sri Lanka, that are deeply rooted in Buddhism and Hinduism.

It was shortly before the Vesak Full Moon in 2006, that President Mahinda Rajapaksa, acceding to requests by the Maha Sangha and Animal Welfare Activists, directed that the old and ineffective colonial policy of seizing and killing of dogs for rabies control be replaced with the more humane, modern and scientific “No Kill” policy; that gave priority to vaccination of dogs against rabies and sterilization for dog population control, as recommended by WHO for these parts of the world.

It was with some reluctance that most local authorities and provincial councils followed this policy.

However, for the SAARC Summit, the Colombo Municipal Council acted in an exemplary manner in how they rounded up stray dogs around the BMICH and the Vihara Maha Devi Park (at the request of the BMICH authorities and the Foreign Ministry) and in a major departure fro the earlier policy of “seize and kill”, looked after them well at the dog pound,vaccinated and sterilized them, and returned them to the original locations no sooner the Summit was over.

This shift towards humane treatment of animals, which is in keeping the country’s laws and long held traditions against cruelty to animals, which are underscored in the President’s policy statement the “Mahinda Chinthana”, is an achievement which brings credit to Sri Lanka. It’s time that other local authorities, including my own local authority in Kandy, that are still trying their best to enforce the outdated colonial policy of “seize and kill” that is repugnant to all norms of humane treatment of animals, and the modern scientific thinking on rabies eradication and dog population control, follow the example of the CMC.

It is also time for our legislators, if they can find the time from petty political bickering, to think how best our laws on the treatment of animals could be brought in line with modern trends and thinking on these issues.