"A raped dog will never again be 100 per cent okay”

The more times we saw the footage to blur the manrsquos penis the more desensitised we became to the raperdquo Shai Divan tells us over the phone The Jai Hind College student is director of Two Biscuits a film made as part of the final assessment for this yearrsquos Bachelor of Mass Media course Divan and seven other students made a 15minute documentary about the sexual assault of dogs On streets and in homes And it was adjudged best documentary of the batchIt was a problem the Breach Candy resident was aware of as she fostered animals and volunteered with shelters And when she first floated the idea among other social issues that could be highlighted the response was a confused ldquoHow can one dog rape anotherrdquoShe explained that it was humans raping dogsmdashcommunity dogs who lived on streets as well as pet dogs in homes And those raping them were not mentally ill angry men who lived on streets but also elegant socialites living in tony neighbourhoods And the latter were never really caught at least feeders realise when a community dog is missing or rush to help when they find him or her in a pool of blood or disfigured genitals Psychologists whom the research team spoke to said that often the impetus was just power A superiority complex I can get away with this The dog cannot tell anyoneThe team with teeshirts named after some of the rape victims right Shai Divan with a dogDivan had known of met or cared for Noorie Rani and Yara celebrating when Yara finally stole a treat ldquoShe was a timid dog who lived on Marine Driverdquo says Divan who has since moved to Karnataka to work with a reptiles ldquoA feeder Mallika Kamodia saw her in the morning and the evening feeder Peppino Bahl found her with her anus disfigured and wounded And this was on the day of the city marathon In a crowded area like Marine Drive There was possible insertion by a human penis but it could not be proved without a swab test or other concrete evidencerdquo And there are no facilities to do that for an animalThe tragedy of dog sexual abuse is manifold You canrsquot prove it without a lab test to confirm the presence of human sexual fluids Often the dog doesnrsquot resist it because of shutdownmdasha state of numbness detachment and disassociation from the body caused by trauma Decriminalization of Section 377 advanced LGBTQiA rights in humans but also made bestiality legal Sexually assaulting an animal is no longer a nonbailable offence itrsquos just cruelty to animals and the fine is Rs 50The team also comprised 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 entirely all street dogs The title for the documentary Two Biscuits came from how little it takes for a dog to trust youThatrsquos all it took for a food delivery guy to lure sweet and docile Noorie in Powai and rape her The feeder Devi Seth found her hiding and whimpering in a godown in a pool of blood in the evening Medical examination revealed a nineinch metal rod had been inserted into her The NGO World for All took over her care ldquoHer insides were like scrambled eggsrdquo says Divan who fostered her for a month ldquoAnimal behaviourist Shirin Dhabhar told us that a sexually assaulted dog will never be a 100 per centrdquo says Divan who also spoke to lawyers and police officers ldquoIt may look like shersquos quiet or withdrawn but thatrsquos a trauma response A shut down state People think that because the dog is not biting or reacting she doesnrsquot know or mind what is happening but that also happens with humans So many times rape victims are asked why they didnrsquot fight back or complain But they canrsquot they dissociate from their bodies Yara wouldnrsquot respond to treats walks or toys She was scared of men and would not go to my dadrdquo Things got better when she befriended another dog and they played together However Noorie on the other hand got cancer after and passed away Her carers are convinced the fatal disease was caused by the stress of her traumaAs Divan and team spoke to more people more cases were unearthed And the lack of legal recourse in such cases too Senior Police Inspector Sudhir Kudalkar is the first and sometimes the only one to help register and take action in such cases But he also rued not being able to do much given restrictions of the law What the Indian Penal Code needs is to recognise and detail degrees of animal cruelty as it does for humansmdashsexual physical fatal mental withholding of welfare intention to harmmdashand stipulate appropriate punishment in terms of bail imprisonment and fees accordingly Grievous offences should be made nonbailable with a rigorous imprisonmentAnimal carers who find these dogs with anuses and vaginas prolapsed by the brutality often need therapy Some of them like a feeder in Powai have to stoically video the abuse for the sake of evidence before stopping it ldquoShe saw a watchman abusing Rani and acted on logic rather than emotions and videoed it before interveningrdquo Divan says ldquoShe gave the footage over to us just so that we could raise awareness Just editing the small bit where we had to outline the manrsquos genitals to blur them took four hours We were so desensitized by thenrdquoThe documentary will soon be released on YouTube and on Instagram rockbottomadoptions as awareness is the first step to the solution The team asked all their subjectsmdashmental health professionals animal carers and professionals cops lawyersmdashwhat they would like to say to a dog who had been rapedUnilaterally the response was one form or the other of Irsquom sorry Humans donrsquot deserve you