“Animal welfare is not just about animals. It is about us. Our living conditions, our children, our earth. Cruelty to animals has a significant and irreversible impact on human health. The quality of our lives depends on them. When we consume them, exploit them, interfere with natural patterns by breeding one kind and killing another, we destroy our own lives. As each species disappears, so does the future of our children”.
Excerpts of interview with Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi - Chairperson, People for Animals (PFA), also known as People for Animals India, which is India’s largest animal welfare organization. Maneka Gandhi, who started the organization in 1992, is its current chairperson.
Q: Can animals get the Covid -19 virus? Can they transmit the virus to humans?
A: I’m glad you asked me this question as it’s a fear that’s going round and it’s complete and utter nonsense. There are several reasons for this; millions and millions of people have dogs and cats and millions of people have got the Covid virus. How is it that in Sri Lanka a dog has got it? In New York a cat was supposed to have got it. In the Bronx Zoo a tiger which has never been exposed to humans, with humans, was supposed to have got it, and that’s the sum total of animals supposed to have got the Covid 19 virus.
In India where millions of people live cheek by jowl with all of them having their own pets and with community animals roaming the streets freely, there was not a single case reported. These animals are being fed by thousands of people daily with not one person having contracted the virus from them, nor have any humans given the animals the virus. These stories are completely baseless and untrue.
Q: What is your advice to pet owners?
A: Love them. Keep them. Continue to look after them. Even after the lockdown ends there will be hesitation on the part of most people to interact with one another. Maybe we will have to change ourselves and our way of living, but if you have a pet you will never be alone. Love your pet and let them love you. And if you don’t have a pet – quickly rush out and get one. There was the story of bats giving people Corona. Immediately people here started cutting down trees.
Let me tell you that bats don’t give people Corona. As per mythology bats don’t come after humans. You don’t get Corona from bats. Rather you get Corona if you eat the flesh of bats. If you get rid of bats you will harm the farmers irreparably. About 30 years ago the government of India decided to get rid of all the bats in the Ajantha and Elora caves, so they went ahead and killed 2 to 3 million bats. It took them just 2 or 3 days to kill these bats. Within 6 months Aurangabad farmers had gone into a major decline. Their crops had dwindled by 25% and they had had to double the amount of pesticides they were using, resulting in their incomes dropping even more. The government then had to reverse their policy and re populate the caves with bats – so don’t ever think of doing such a thing. Bats are the major pesticide proof for organic farmers.
Q: What is your advice to animal welfare workers?
A: They must keep feeding the animals. The reason I say this is because if you have hungry dogs and cats on the road you will face a major crisis. Hungry animals will become fearful of and shy away from humans. They will feel abandoned and will not hesitate to bite. Then your next step will be to kill them resulting in yet another problem. They simply have to be fed. Every animal welfare person has to go out there and feed them and those who do not feed need to start today! Moreover if you don’t feed cats, you will lose every single bird on your island. Cats faced with no food will start killing birds. Therefore you have to feed both cats and dogs and feed them properly. India has been in lockdown / curfew mode for 1 ½ months now but we go out and feed our community animals. Our government has been most sensible in giving all
animal welfare workers feeding passes to enable them to go out and feed community animals.
Q: What is the OIE’s – [WORLD ORGANISATION FOR ANIMAL HEALTH ] stand on the Covid virus?
A: The predominant route of transmission of the Covid 19 virus is human to human. No companion animals have got it. No cows, goats, sheep or pigs have got it. The Indian government put together a team of 30 of our best vets to research this and they researched over 30,000 animals and have not found even a single animal with a trace of the virus.
Q: Sri Lanka is yet to pass its Animal Welfare Bill. What is your advice to animal welfare workers in such a scenario and how do we safeguard our animals?
A: If you don’t have an Animal Welfare Bill in place its really retrograde! Every country in the world has one. If Sri Lanka does not have one it’s a shame. It is a Buddhist country. The people must go to court and get the Bill through.
Some years ago in Chandigarh, the Municipal Commissioner announced that he was going to break all the bee hives. He got down a crane specifically for this purpose and this crane went right round Chandigarh breaking down all the bee hives. I met the bureaucrat who initiated this and explained to him that bees do not attack humans unless provoked. Furthermore the bee knows that when it stings a human it dies as once they put their sting into you their entire abdomen comes out with the sting. When you do away with bees your entire pollination levels go down and your farmers would have immense problems, especially with regard to fruits and flowers. You need to try and instil some sense into these bureaucrats and educate them, no matter how hard it seems.
If You Have Animals
Key Points:
- Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses. Some cause illness in people, and others cause illness in certain types of animals.
- Some coronaviruses that infect animals can sometimes be spread to people, but this is rare.
- We do not know the exact source of the current outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The first infections were thought to be linked to a live animal market, but the virus is now primarily spreading from person to person.
- At this time, there is no evidence that animals play a significant role in spreading the virus that causes COVID-19.
- Based on the limited information available to date, the risk of animals spreading COVID-19 to people is considered to be low.
- We are still learning about this virus, but it appears that it can spread from people to animals in some situations.
- The first case of an animal testing positive for the virus in the United States was in a tiger that had a respiratory illness at a zoo in New York City.
- Treat pets as you would other human family members – do not let pets interact with people or animals outside the household. If a person inside the household becomes sick, isolate that person from everyone else, including pets.
- Further studies are needed to understand if and how different animals could be affected by the virus that causes COVID-19 and the role animals may play in the spread of COVID-19.
Courtesy: CDC