Coronavirus: India’s lockdown sees strays starve as pets are abandoned
- Across the country, activists are scraping together all they can to keep animals from dying, but misinformation and police inaction aren’t helping
- Closed restaurants and disrupted supply lines also mean food is in short supply, amid concerns of attacks on humans by packs of starving dogs
On board was almost 500 bags of rice – weighing in the region of 12,000kg – to be dropped at 10 different locations.
The food was for stray animals, mostly dogs and cats, who have been struggling for sustenance since India was placed under complete lockdown on March 25 in an effort to curb the spread of the pandemic.
It took Siva, an animal activist, around 13 hours to finish the job – six to drive around the city and distribute food, and seven more to convince the authorities to let him do it.
“Hiring a truck alone costs over 10,000 rupees (USD$130) every day. It took us so much time just to convince the cops to let us load food in it, despite having a letter of permission from the police chief,” he said in a phone interview.
Siva said he worries that without government support, people like him will be unable to “increase their capacity” to care for more strays, “especially with so much job uncertainty during the lockdown”.
