Culling times ahead of Sri Lanka's stray dogs

Dogs challenge Namal's Colombo Street motor races

In Sri Lanka dogs are luckier than humans. There are influential persons from social elite to appear for canine rights.

Most of these people will not open their mouths if government decides to kill the rebel youth of the JVP rebel Movement for People's Struggles (MPS). Two MPS activists have disappeared and nobody seems interested although the MPS attempts to turn the streets upside down over the matter.

Who cares? The two disappeared are Tamils. Just another two Tamil youths to be added to a long, long list of such people.

Forget them, let us talk about dogs. Dogs challenged the Colombo Street Motor Races in December and in our Sinhala blog we predicted the animals would see a bad time. Anyway, there are only dogs nor to challenge the Rajapaksa regime.

Sri Lanka's stray dogs sterilization programmes conducted by several NGOs have proven a failure. Dog population has risen from two million earlier media reports to three million present media reports. God knows what count the basis is.

Minister of Health Maithripala Sirisena seems well scented the regime's need of arresting the dog issue in its efforts to economically survive with the tourism industry. Sinhala daily Lankadeepa in a gossip column said that a wife of a Western diplomat had told that she wondered how island would become a tourist paradise due to this dog issue.

Minister Sirisena raised the matter at Kaluthara and Polonnaruwa hospitals during inspection tours. The officials pointed out that the stray dogs have become a nuisance to patients and staff in government hospitals. An official pointed out that there were 30,000 stray dogs in Polonnaruwa district alone. Deputy Minister of Ports Rohith Abegunawardhana said at Kaluthara hospital that there were around 4000 stray dogs in Colombo Port.

The Minister of Health said that the government spent one billion rupees per annum for sterilization programmes and half of the amount to treat dog bites. Around 2000 dog bites are reported from Sri Lanka each day.

Signs indicate that the dogs will have to go. Animal love will go where 'Mathata Thitha' or the No Liquor policy went.

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