Sad end of a dog
It was 10:36 a.m. on Saturday at Nkronso. The early morning drizzle had given the town respite from dust, and the clouds, still heavily laden with rain, darkened the sky, putting the sun to sleep.
Advertisement
The leaves of the lone shade tree in the centre of the town waved in answer to the puff of cold breeze from the cloudy sky that signaled the rain might come again, though the sun faintly rebelled occasionally.
It was just the perfect weather the townsfolk of this Eastern Region town needed for their kind of occupation, but custom had forced them away from their farms, where they traditionally would have been at that time of the day. But they understood why.
Cruel killing
In one part of the town a sombre atmosphere hung over one house draped in black and red ribbons. There, women in black or red wailed and men blinked their tears away and swallowed hard in pride. Their family head, Opanin Bosompem, lay in state for final respects on the last leg of his journey across the face of the earth to his destination – the unknown. But he would not go alone. His family hurried one nameless dog to its death to accompany him, all part of the last respects custom demanded for him, in violation of the dog’s right to life.
A man who would refuse to give his name brought the dog in chain, its mouth firmly clasped in his palm to prevent it from barking a plea for help.
Help came somehow, but only for a moment. Driven by their Christian emotions, the children of the deceased drove the man with the dog away in opposition to the custom, which they said was a pagan act.
“We are Christians. We can’t be part of this,” Mr Otchere, one of the children, said.
They had their say but custom had its way. The man returned in a group with the dog. It was calm, without even a wriggle. But its eyes, too red to be normal, said it was afraid. It defecated even before it could feel the knife of its killer, who cut it in the neck without cutting its throat.
With its life – blood – dripping away slowly, the dog, still in chain, moved about with a whine to spill its blood around, which the people said was in accordance with custom.
“This is to tell the deceased to go in peace with the dog,” Mr Robert K. Antwi, 82, elder brother of the deceased, explained.
After a while, the slaughterer cut the dog’s throat and sprinkled its blood on the calico that draped the coffin of the deceased. The men who helped to end the dog’s life took its carcass away. It was now a delicacy.
Justification with custom
Yaw Barimah, a younger brother of the deceased, dismissed a charge of cruelty against the dog by holding custom to blame.
“Here when an elder of a family dies, we kill the totem of the family to bid him farewell. We inherited this custom from our forebears and we cannot do anything about it,” he said.
His explanation differed from that of Mr Antwi, who said they killed the dog for the deceased because while alive, he ate dog meat.
“I’m his brother but I don’t take dog meat, so they won’t kill one for me when I die,” he said.
While the disagreement on the basis of custom for killing the dog rages on and Christianity clashes with tradition, the right of domestic animals to protection from cruelty remains unenforced.
Neglect of animal rights
On pages 236 to 240 of The Annotated Criminal Offences Act of Ghana (Fifth edition), Henrietta H. J. N. Mensah-Bonsu, the learned professor, captures sections 303 to 307 of the act which clearly protects domestic animals from cruelty. Just section 303(1) (a) and (b) will suffice for proof:
“(1) A person commits the criminal offence of cruelty and is liable to a fine not exceeding twenty-five units who
(a) cruelly beats, kicks, ill-treats, over-loads, tortures, infuriates, or terrifies an animal, or causes or procures or being the owner, permits any animal to be so used; or
(b) by wantonly or unreasonably doing or omitting to do any act, or causing or procuring the commission of an act, causes unnecessary suffering, or being the owner, permits unnecessary suffering, to be caused to an animal; or...”
These provisions sit as decorative fine lines on the pages of the Criminal Code 1960 (Act 29). But who cares? Not the state and certainly not the citizens! The Kasoa to Accra road most times is a litter of carcasses of dogs, victims of drivers who have no respect for the rights of domestic animals.
Even some law enforcement officers don’t consider the inhumane treatment of domestic animals anything worth their time.
One Tuesday morning a red Opel Omega caravan taxi pulled up in a heavy traffic at the Weija Junction on the Kasoa to Accra road. In the boot, the driver had crammed a cow, which kept mooing. The police officer on duty at the traffic light intersection went close to see what was in the car’s boot. It was just a cow. She turned away to continue with her business of conducting traffic to save humans from discomfort of getting stuck in traffic.
This neglect of the rights of domestic animals is evident in the national crime statistics that the police gather. Year after year, the statistics are all about crimes against humans – armed robbery, rape, murder etc.
“In Ghana, people don’t report such cases [of cruelty against animals],” Assistant Superintendent of Police Joseph Benefo Darkwah, Public Relations Officer of the Criminal Investigations Department, said in answer to why crime statistics are without data on domestic animals.
Concerning dog ritual, Mr Otchere said Hope, the dog initially set aside for killing to accompany his deceased father in fulfilment of that custom, realised it would take its own courage and speed to enforce its animal rights. It managed to escape beyond recapture and the lot fell on another dog.
By Emanuel Agyei Arthur/Ghana