“A raped dog will never be 100% well again”

The team meeting SPI Sachin Kudalkar

“The more we watched the footage in which the man’s penis was blurred, the more desensitized we became to the rape,” Shai Divan tells us over the phone. The Jai Hind College student is the director of Just Two Biscuits, a film made as part of the final exam for this year’s Bachelor of Mass Media course. Divan and seven other students made a 15-minute documentary about the sexual harassment of dogs: On the streets and in private homes. And it was voted the best documentary of the year.

It was a problem that Breach Candy resident was aware of, as she cared for animals and volunteered at animal shelters. And when she first brought up the idea among other social issues that could be addressed, the reaction was a confused “How can one dog rape another?”

She explained that it was people who raped dogs – community dogs living on the streets as well as domestic dogs. And the rapists were not mentally ill, angry men living on the streets, but also elegant socialites living in posh neighborhoods. And the latter were never really caught; at least the feeders notice when a community dog ​​is missing, or rush to help when they find him or her in a pool of blood or with disfigured genitals. Psychologists the research team spoke to said that the drive was often just power. A superiority complex: I can get away with it. The dog can’t tell anyone.

The team with T-shirts named after some of the rape victims; (right) Shai Divan with a dog

Divan knew Noorie, Rani and Yara, had met them or cared for them and was delighted when Yara finally stole a treat. “She was a shy dog ​​who lived on Marine Drive,” says Divan, who has since moved to Karnataka to work at a reptile rescue and rehabilitation centre. “One feeder, Mallika Kamodia, saw her in the morning and the evening feeder saw her in the evening, with her anus disfigured and injured. And that was on the day of the city marathon! In a crowded area like Marine Drive! The lawyer who helped us, Peppino Bahl, said it was possible that a human penis had penetrated her, but that could not be proven without a swab test.” And there are no facilities to do that to an animal.

The tragedy of dog sexual abuse is multifaceted: it cannot be proven without a lab test confirming the presence of human sexual fluids; often the dog does not fight back because it shuts itself off – a state of numbness, detachment and separation from the body caused by the trauma. The decriminalisation of Section 377 expanded LGBTQiA+ rights for people but also made sodomy legal. Sexual harassment of an animal is no longer a non-bailable offence; it is just animal cruelty and the fine is Rs 50.

The team also included Shreya Shahe, Vanshika Lakhani, Ayush Karande, Tanishtha Thakur, Srushti Pagariya, Keshika Shah and Dhruv Mandhani. The research took three months and it was shocking how many names came up, almost all of them street dogs. The title of the documentary, Just Two Biscuits, comes from the fact that it doesn’t take much to make a dog trust you.

That was all it took for a food delivery man to lure and rape sweet and gentle Noorie in Powai. The food delivery man found her hiding and whimpering in a pool of blood in a warehouse that evening. A medical examination revealed that a 23-centimetre-long metal rod had been inserted into her. The non-governmental organisation World for All took over her care. “Her insides looked like scrambled eggs,” says Divan, who took her in for a month. “Animal behaviourist Shirin Dhabhar told us that a sexually abused dog never fully recovers,” says Divan, who has also spoken to lawyers and police officers. “It may look like he/she is quiet or withdrawn, but that is a response to trauma: a state of closure. People think the dog doesn’t know or care what is happening because it doesn’t bite or react, but that happens with people too. So often, rape victims are asked why they didn’t fight back or complain. But they can’t; they distance themselves from their bodies. Noorie didn’t respond to treats, walks or toys. She was afraid of men and wouldn’t go to my dad.” Things got better when she befriended another dog and they played together. However, Noorie later developed cancer and died. Her caregivers are convinced the fatal disease was caused by the stress of her trauma.

As Divan and his team spoke to more people, more cases came to light. And so did the lack of redress in such cases. Senior police inspector Sudhir Kudalkar is the first and sometimes the only one who helps register such cases and take action. But he also laments that he cannot do much given the limitations of the law. What the Indian Penal Code needs is to recognise and name the degrees of cruelty to animals as with humans – sexual, physical, lethal, mental denial of welfare, intentional harm – and accordingly prescribe appropriate punishments in the form of bail, jail and fines. Serious offences should be punished without bail and with a rigorous jail term.

Animal handlers who find these dogs with their anuses and vaginas protruding from brutality often need therapy. Some of them, like a feeder in Colaba, have to stoically film the abuse to have evidence before they stop. “She saw a guard abusing Rani and acted logically rather than emotionally and filmed it before intervening,” says Divan. “She gave us the footage so we could raise awareness. Just editing the small piece where we had to outline the man’s genitals to make them unrecognizable took four hours. We were so numb at that point.”

The documentary will soon be released on YouTube, because awareness is the first step to a solution. The team asked all of their interlocutors – psychologists, animal caretakers and professionals, police officers, lawyers – what they would say to a dog that had been raped.

The one-sided response was something like this: “I’m sorry. People don’t deserve you.”