Monday, August 08, 2005

Cowboys turn, well, Indian

So you have cows on the road. So they're blocking traffic. So instead of setting up a proper animal welfare organisation that might actually prevent Delhi's holy cows from corrupting their intestines with plastic bags and the like, and that might look after stray cattle, what do you do? You put a bounty on their heads and exhort the general citizenry to go catch cows.
No, seriously. This really happened, courtesy a court order that sounds like arrant b..., er, cow-manufactured natural products. It's not working very well, though:

With the prospect of instant cash fading with each passing day, the public's enthusiasm to capture and hand over stray cattle to the civic authorities in the capital is waning.
The Delhi High Court Thursday directed MCD to reward anyone who captured the stray animals and deduct the reward amount from the salary of veterinary officers posted in its 12 zones.
In the wake of the court ruling, many an adventurous person took on the cowboy role in the city, herding the stubborn animals towards a cattle pound on bikes, cars and even military trucks.


And the end result of this? Terrified animals. Unhappy veterinary officers. Unpaid cowboys. And, well, more paperwork. Nice going, gentlemen.