The law is fairly clear on the matter: According to Section 7 of the Animal Welfare Act 2019, stray animals cannot be killed or forcefully relocated.
It would seem as though the Dhaka South City Corporation is either oblivious to or is choosing to flagrantly ignore the law. Both are inexcusable.
In recent days, the DSCC has undertaken the task of relocating tens of thousands of stray dogs to the Matuail landfill. Among their reasons is to “increase the comfort of residents” in certain areas. We already have a long, cruel history of dog-culling, which animal activists have been trying to end. This newspaper has editorialized numerous times about the need to end these cruel practices towards stray animals. Even the law is on board. And yet, these cruel, inhumane, not to mention illegal practices continue in the name of progress while real problems remain ignored.
To that end, it is good to see that a writ petition has been filed with the High Court, seeking a stop to the initiative of relocating stray dogs, on behalf of cultural personality Jaya Ahsan and two animal welfare organizations.
At a time like the one we are going through, the city corporation should have its hands full with things that matter, which makes its latest cruel policies all the more disturbing. Valuable resources and manpower needed for waste-management and minimizing the effects of the pandemic are now being diverted for no reason.
If a simple appeal to morality and humanity is not enough, then we must take recourse to the law. Here, DSCC does not have the scope to simply beg to differ.
