DogExpress
Popular Punjabi singers Diljit Dosanjh and Kamal Grewal have recently been criticized for songs and videos that glorify dog fights.
To Expose Animal fights in India, animal activists have created a page called “Exposing Animal Fights In India”. There were more than 100 secretly-captured videos of the canine blood sport uploaded on the page.
Dog fights popular in Punjab and Haryana
Dog fights are hugely popular in Punjab and Haryana. Cities like Bhatinda, Ludhiana, Hisar, Fatehabad, Gurgaon and several farmhouses in Delhi illegally conduct dog fights for entertainment purpose. Breeds such as Pit bulls, Bull dogs, Rottweilers, Indian mastiffs and other pedigree dogs are especially bred and trained to be aggressive and ferocious. They are trained to kill other dogs in fights.
Punjabi singers glorifying dog fights in their music albums
Dosanjh, who is himself seen handling Pit bulls in the video, says, “Rakhe fight nu vi Pitbull chaar ni” (Have kept four Pitbulls for fighting).
Grewal in this song say, “Pitbull’an da chalaya yaaran ne hai daur ni” (Friends have begun the trend of Pitbull fighting).” He is also seen making two unruly dogs fight with mouth guards on.
Complaints filed
Abhinav Srihan of NGO Fauna Police says, “We strongly condemn this. It is wrong to project dog fights as something macho, valiant or courageous. Punjab has historically been known for healthy human sports like kushti and kabaddi. The Sikh Regiment in Indian Army has won maximum awards for their true heroism, and our Gurus have also taught compassion for all. It is sad that things have come to a point where we make dogs fight and set this as an example for the youth.”
Few dog lovers have already forwarded complaints to the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) regarding singers Dosanjh, Grewal and some more small-time singers.
The complainants say that some singers are not just promoting animal cruelty, but drugs consumption and use of illegal firearms through their explicit videos, as well.
The AWBI has written letters to Punjab Police for action. Strangely, singer Kamal Grewal responded to one of these FB posts saying, “How can a song, which is itself named ‘Sarkari Ban’ be banned by the authorities.”
Diljit Dosanjh, on the other hand, did not respond to the criticism on FB despite being tagged.
Earlier, Union minister for women and child welfare Maneka Gandhi had said that she was aware of this cruel sport.
“Dogs are starved for days. Their tails and ears are cut off. They are made violent for such fights, and when one dog loses, it is shot dead by the owner. It is a very sad state of affairs,” she had told the media.
“Even 10-day old puppies gouge out eyes and maul each other to death. Bigger dogs are made to fight cows and bulls and rip their flesh away,” another activist said.
Reference: Indiatoday
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in Chandigarh, India. 
