THE BLUE CROSS OF INDIA INTERVIEW
By Claudette Vaughan

Take a look around you at the animals sharing our planet. New born calves being starved to death; snakes skinned alive for fashion; live frogs being cut into two, their legs exported for “gourmet” cooking; puppies and kittens condemned to death, as their owners did not care enough; bullocks with sore necks and broken tails pulling overloaded carts; and millions of other animals tortured in the name of science, sport, entertainment and fashion. The Blue Cross of India are addressing all of these issues. They are non-profit and the Abolitionist spoke recently to its co-founder Dr Chinny Krishna on their remarkable work.

Abolitionist: You are the founder of The Blue Cross of India and you organised the recent Asia for Animals Conference. What does the Blue Cross do and how did the Conference go?

Dr Chinny Krishna: I was one of the nine co-founders of the Blue Cross in 1964. The principles on which the Blue Cross were based on are:

1. That it is a moral obligation that all animals, whether domesticated or wild, be protected from cruelty at the hands of man.

2. That the claims and interests of science, sport and the production of food do not exempt man from the obligation to prevent suffering.

The main organised focal points of cruelty anywhere are in the meat trade and in the abuse of animals under the pretext of "scientific" research. The Blue Cross has been campaigning on these issues for the last 43 years.

Regarding Asia for Animals, the Blue Cross was honoured to be able to host the fourth edition of this biennial conference at Chennai in January 2007. With over 320 delegates from more than 20 countries, AfA seems to be the most important conference on animal issues in Asia.

Abolitionist: The Blue Cross was instrumental in assisting and aiding many stranded animals during the Boxing Day Tsunami a few years ago. What was that like and how many animals did you save?

CK: Within minutes of the tsunami hitting Chennai, our volunteers were on the each helping rescue snakes; cats; dogs; cattle and goats. For the next month, we fed thousands of animals separated from their guardians. In Chennai, this was mainly dogs and a few cats though we did give fodder to dozens of cattle in northen Chennai. Further down the coast, at Cuddalore and Nagapattinam, the animals looked after were mainly cattle with a few hundred dogs and some goats.

Our volunteers (and special mention must be made here of those who camped on the beach at Nagapattinam for almost two weeks under terrible conditions), did a fantastic job with the help of hundreds of people and some government assistance.

Abolitionist: What are the ABC programs that the Blue Cross run and why have they been such a phenomenal success in India?

CK: You may not be aware that the Blue Cross of India was the first in the world to propose a stop to the killing of street dogs and replacing it with a spay-vaccinate-and-release programme to control the street dog population as well as the incidence of rabies. This was in 1964. We decided to call it the Animal Birth Control or ABC programme to show that the control of the street dog programme was as simple as ABC! As to whether it has been a success, the figures speak for themselves: wherever the ABC programme has been properly implemented like in Chennai, Jaipur and Kalimpong, the numbers of street dogs as well as the number of cases of rabies have declined noticeably. Rabies in humans in Chennai have come down from a high of 120 in 1996 (when ABC replaced killing city wide) to five in each of the last two years. In Jaipur and Kalimpong, the deaths from rabies is zero for several years now.

Abolitionist: What was the situation like before the ABC programs were set up for stray animals?

CK: The situation for street dogs (they are community animals and not really strays) was bad in that they lived a subsistence life. Females littered every six months and piles of hungry dogs could be seen around every dustbin and mother dogs and their pups were a common sight.

Abolitionist: How big a problem is rabies in India today?

CK: It is a major problem. The sad part is that this is a preventable disease and can be controlled by vaccination if the will is there.

Abolitionist: What other animals are you working for Chinny?

CK: Under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, an animal is defined as "all living creatures other than man". The mandate of the Blue Cross is to help all animals in distress. From 1996 to 2002, I was on the Indian Government Committee for the Purpose of Control & Supervision of Experiments on Animals. The first Rules for this were enacted during this period. From 2000 to 2004, I was the Vice Chairman of the Animal Welfare Board of India in the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The AWBI is the apex body for NGOs in animal welfare and we have about 2200 animal welfare groups in India which are recognised by the AWBI. Most of them are cattle rescue centres with about 70 SPCAs thrown in. Animals worked for include all laboratory animals, companion animals, farm animals and animals in entertainment.

Abolitionist: What did the Asia for Animals Conference accomplish this year?

CK: We were able to consolidate on the efforts of the three previous AfAs and bring many more countries to share their experiences with all of us. First time Asian countries included Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Georgia. All these with the exception of Georgia are Muslim countries and we are delighted that animal welfare issues are being seriously taken up here.

Abolitionist: Can you name your successes for animals to date please?

CK: Our ultimate success will be when we make ourselves redundant but our minor successes so far include the ban on the export of frogs' legs from India; the making of dissection at school level optional and then the subsequent ban; the ABC programme proposed by us in 1964 becoming national policy in 1996 followed by the Dog Control Rules under which only terminally ill and rabid dogs can be euthanised; regulations for the control of animal experiments; stopping the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai from taking in parrots - the animal associated with the temple diety - to be caged for life and which saw a bird that can live for 60 years and more in freedom die in less than a year; and the Pound Seizure rules which prevent municipalities from handing over any animal for research.

Abolitionist: India has a long and rich tradition of non-violent direct action. How much of that is happening in modern day India Chinny?

CK: The happenings in Bangalore over the last eight days and the brutal slaughtering of dogs there and in Mysore shows that the veneer of civilised behaviour is indeed quite thin. The beautiful tradition which helped us over the last five thousand years seem to have been lost in the last fifty.

Abolitionist: How can people help your work?

CK: In 1966, four anti-vivisection groups in the UK donated an ambulance to the Blue Cross. We then took a decision that, to be successful, we must raise the funds for the work we are doing from with the community we serve and we did not accept any funds from abroad till 1987. Today, with the kind of cost effective work we do, we know that we can save hundreds of more animals if we have the money. The Blue Cross is fortunate in that all the administrative and educational work and much of the day-to-day work is done by a group of professionals who volunteer their services on a purely honorary basis. This ensures that every rupee we receive goes directly to help animals without any of it being eroded by administrative expenses. For instance, we do a capture-spay-vaccinate-and-release of a street dog for under US$10 - unmatched anywhere in the world.

Abolitionist: How does Dr Dog work in India? Indians don't eat dog's flesh do they?

CK: Since 1987, we have had a pet therapy programme using dogs to help special children with autism and dyslexia. In 2000, with the help of the Animals Asia Foundation, we revamped the programme and began working as part of their Dr. Dog programme. Orphanages, schools for special children, homes for senior citizens - all have visit from carefully assessed therapy dogs with amazing results.

Small pockets of Indians - tribals in different parts of the country and predominantly in the North Eastern States - do eat dogs but it is on a small scale and can certainly be stopped if existing rules are enforced. Slack enforcement and corruption ensure that laws are broken.

Blue Cross of India website: www.bluecross.org.in