Bioterrorism or Benevolence?

Are we doing more harm than good by feeding stray animals

This image provoked a very strong response from an anti dog account on social media, these are the demands they made

Issue a culling order

People who feed stray animals are bioterrorists

Stop building shelters

Stop municipalities buying food

Ban feeding strays altogether

Close down all the NGO's who support vulnerable animals

Tax dog owners

For some time there has been a call for safe streets which demanded that all stray dogs be removed from the streets as soon as possible. Demands that we can totally get onboard with. The suffering that stray animals endure day after day is completely unacceptable. But it would seem that clearing the streets is not enough for anti dog accounts. The response given here as an example is not isolated, you can easily see other examples on social media without too much effort. It would appear that this lobby will not stop until every dog is destroyed.

I find the bioterrorism reference interesting. What can be meant by such a strong accusation?

Bioterrorism involves intentionally releasing viruses, bacteria, or toxins to harm people, livestock, or crops. I will cite the 2001 anthrax incident in America, where spores were unleashed on the public through the mailing system culminating in exposure by 22 citizens.

Is feeding stray dogs & cats the same?

I think not.

We don’t support the feeding of raw meat to strays. It is unsanitary, there is a risk of bacterial contamination to both animals & humans. We understand why people feed dogs this way, often meat is cheaper than dog food which is a significant argument in favour of it but its still not something that we can condone.

Feeding dry kibble is a far lower health risk especially when this is done in designated feeding areas. There have been directives which seek to ban the feeding of strays which many mayors have raised concerns about. Instead of implementing a ban they have chosen to allocate designated feeding areas. We think this works well as they have responsibility to clear away any uneaten food & keep the area clean. These designated areas also keep dogs away from areas they are not welcome & reduce human / animal conflict. Although I am sad to say we are struggling to find places where dogs are welcome at all these days.

Other demands from the anti dog lobby as shown here are unrealistic at best, others may say downright cruel & hateful. Shelters will be built inline with amendments to law 5199 & dogs taken from the streets will be housed there. These dogs need to be fed, any demands to stop mayors from accessing food for the dogs is a challenge to decency as well as authority.

Mayors are already struggling with the burden of providing what is needed to give the dogs the most basic level of care.

In the video above it is mentioned that NGO’s will be invited to support the provision of food to municipal shelters & that waste food will be collected & given to the dogs. Its not clear as yet how that waste will be given. We don’t know if it will be fed as is or if it will be converted to pellet form via the use of an extruder machine. Either way it is not something that we can recommend. Feeding dogs dog food ensures nutritional assurance. Feeding human waste does not.

We don’t know how NGO’s will respond to calls to help raise food donations for municipal shelters. We are expecting the response to be less than willing due to the restrictions placed on many associations when attempting to raise donations to feed their own animals.

We believe that the only way to ensure that shelters are run well is if they are co-operative.

We currently have one mayor who is planning his build right now. We have met with him & negotiated. The community carer in that area will be privy to every single decision from planning to implementation. He will be welcome to visit whenever he wishes, will discuss every problem or insufficiency he sees & will advise the mayor so that the shelter can operate in a manner which is befitting an establishment which cares for sentient beings.

That doesn’t address budgetary issues though & we are heavily concerned in this regard. Mayors should be spending 0.5% of their budgets on the dogs. We know in many instances they are spending much more & still have funding problems. Add to that the baying mob who do not want their taxes spent on stray animal management at all. The mayors have a huge problem & ultimately the dogs will pay the price.