Filmmaker RGV's hard hitting questions on stray dogs vs child safety

Hyderabad: Following the Supreme Court's directions on dealing with the stray dog issues and animal rights activists opposing the same, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma questioned the priorities of animal rights activists following recent fatal attacks on children by street dogs. The debate comes amid growing public anger over the Supreme Court's recent order upholding municipal measures to control dangerous strays.  

In a series of tweets, RGV shared videos of children being attacked on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle, which highlighted the tragic death of a four-year-old child mauled by stray dogs, juxtaposed against what he called "selective compassion" of affluent dog lovers. "When a child is torn apart on the streets, where are the hashtags and protests?" Varma asked in one tweet that has since been shared over 50,000 times.

Varma's critique focuses on what he calls a "class divide in compassion." His tweets point out that while wealthy urbanites pamper pedigreed pets in gated communities, economically disadvantaged Indians bear the brunt of the stray dog menace. “But the truth is this: the dog menace does not exist in your lavish villas. It prowls in the streets and slums. It stalks the alleys where the poor live, where children play barefoot, where no gates or fences protect them. While the privileged stroke their glossy pets, the powerless are left to tend to the wounded and bury their loved ones," read RGV’s tweet.

Further, RGV questioned, “You talk about dog rights. Fine. But what about the child’s rights? The right to live. The right of his parents to see him grow. Do those rights vanish because you love dogs? Do those rights matter less than your Instagram photos of you cuddling your own pedigreed pets?”