Jose Mavely doesn't like strays

For close to two decades, Mavely has been hailed as a social worker across Kerala, championing the cause of the destitute. But that image now stands in stark contrast to the picture of him as a 'dog-k

In the last week of October, a distinctly upsetting scene played out in the coastal town of Varkala in Kerala. The police had come to arrest Jose Mavely, a 66-year-old who was accused of orchestrating the culling of nearly 40 stray dogs. But local residents wouldn't let the police take away Mavely, or any of the men who carried out the killings.

"I am here because they (the locals) asked me to come. They are upset and angry," Mavely had told reporters at the scene. The situation was tense because a 90-year-old man who was sleeping on his veranda had been mauled to death by strays the day before.

Earlier in September, the police had arrested Mavely for heading a similar operation in which 25 dogs were culled. Over the last one year, eight cases have been registered against Mavely for such killings, bu the refuses to back down.

"Let the police arrest me. The court will not punish me," Mavely tells me over the phone, alternating between English and Malayalam. "I have not done anything wrong."

He questions the death of "innocent goats" and wonders where animal lovers were when cattle were killed two years ago in central Kerala after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, or when ducks were culled because of the bird flu scare.

Back in the late 1980s, two men who worked alongside Mavely died after being bit by rabid dogs, and since then, the fear of strays has only compounded. "Who will speak for those on the streets, who live under the threat of stray dogs? Animal lovers should realise that human lives are now at risk because of the population of strays," he says.

While some estimate the number of strays in Kerala to be over 270,000, Mavely believes the actual number is much higher. According to reports, 10 people have been killed following dog attacks and over 90,000 dog bite cases have been registered this year alone in Kerala.

"I am not a killer. I am a mediator. When people call me asking for help, I ask dog-catchers to resolve the problem," says Mavely. In September, Mavely had even offered Rs 500 as reward for killing strays.

For close to two decades, Aluva-based Mavely has been hailed as a social worker across Kerala, championing the cause of the destitute. His NGO, Janaseva Sisubhavan, houses 300 children who used to live on the streets. He also heads a project that seeks to rehabilitate women and elders in need of shelter and support.

But Mavely's image as a social worker now stands in stark contrast to the picture of him as a "dog-killer", a "demon" who hates animals. He doesn't hate dogs, insists Mavely. "I have had two lovely dogs of my own, a German Shepherd and a Pomeranian. I can't keep dogs anymore because I live in an apartment now."

Having grown up in an orphanage, Mavely understands the many facets of poverty first-hand. "There are so many women who sleep at bus stops, street pavements and on railway stations. People in such circumstances can't afford medical care, they can't afford vaccinations when dogs bite them or treatment for skin disease passed on by strays."

Over the years, the calls to Mavely asking for assistance have dramatically grown up. "Children have stopped going to school for fear of being chased by dogs," says K C James, the manager at Sisubhavan. In the last 10 years of knowing Mavely, James believes him to be a kind and just man.

Mavely has shelled out money to help with animal birth control programmes in the past, but those efforts haven't paid off. He has also tried building a dog-shelter. "But members of a few political parties and animal lovers resisted the move: their argument was that strays should be left to wander the streets," recalls James.