Advocate Mita Banerjee, who practices at Calcutta High Court and is a dog lover, recently with fellow animal lovers, including actress Debasree Roy protested at Alipore Police Court against a move by a section of the people to remove stray dogs from the premises.
Their grievance is that a few animal haters are trying to remove the harmless stray dogs, which is illegal.
Advocate Banerjee not only cares for the dogs but also gets them treated when they fall sick. She points out that before festivals like Durga Puja and Christmas, one can see dogs vanishing from the streets. Usually, this follows after there is a hue and cry that they are biting humans. Adv Banerjee warns that the dog meat trade is still thriving in the city.
“The infamous Bhagar incident of 2018 is also fresh in our minds. Apart from a section of people who are sadists and would kill them at the slightest pretext, there is also a class of people who do business with these stray dogs,” said Adv Banerjee.
Mita Banerjee said, “I I go to Alipore Police Court to drop my husband, who has his office there. I have befriended a dog whom I named Gaja (after the famous Bengali sweet). He recognises my car and at 9 am, when I’m at the court, Gaja with his set of friends runs in to greet me. This is a daily affair.”
“But, at the court recently, one of the judicial magistrates commented to get rid of the stray dogs for creating nuisance. Following this, it has also come to light that one mother along with the other dogs were removed from the premises. There is a Supreme Court ruling that you cannot relocate any stray from its habitat and neither can you stop someone from feeding them. After our protest, there has been no further harm to the animals there,” added Banerjee.