One mother is named Nishi, a mother of three; the other is named Tom, mother of eight newborn pups. The language already tells you the two mothers are not of the same kind. In Bengali one can address Nishi with the respectful pronoun, but not the dog Tom; Nishi can be called a janani, a word reserved for humans, but the dog mother cannot. Yet given the cruel events involving Nishi and Tom, the forms of address ought to be reversed.

Nature has given all an equal right to live. Nishi, of the human race, did not respect that. She raises her children together with her husband, Hasanur Rahman, an official of the Krishak Unnayan Foundation. But the dog Tom alone bears the burden of looking after eight young. Tom lives in a corner of the residence of the UNO of Ishwardi upazila. She is clearly not cared for by the UNO; had the UNO's family paid the dog a little attention, the official's wife would never have dared even to look at her.

This too is Bangladesh: Nishi, a mother of three, killed eight puppies, put them in a sack and threw them into water. The mother dog's heartbreaking cries caught the attention of local people, who immediately looked into it and found out what had happened. The incident proved there is no shortage of humane people in the country. Millions could not accept the killing of the innocent pups in this way. It went viral online in moments, and people began demanding punishment for the accused. It reached the ears of Farida Akhter, adviser to the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock in the current government, who phoned the local administration and called the incident inhumane. The writer thanks adviser Farida Akhter for taking the matter seriously from her high office, and adds that in Bangladesh such an act is only considered inhumane when someone that high up makes a call.

The incident will be remembered as one of the rare episodes in the history of dogs for another reason. The day after the killing, the mother dog cried and ran about for her pups, and then on Tuesday climbed to the first floor of the UNO's office and stood in front of the UNO's door. The photograph was published in newspapers. It left little doubt that, like a human, she was pleading for justice. Why did the woman named Nishi kill the pups? She reportedly did it out of concern for her own children's safety. The writer calls this an entirely false explanation: anyone who knows dogs knows that a dog that grows up in the same place is no threat to safety but becomes a protector.

The writer recalls several heart-rending dog stories from around the world before returning to Nishi's dark state of mind. The first was recorded by a 13th-century Catholic priest, Stephen Borbon. At that time a nobleman lived in a grand house in a fortress in the French city of Lyon. He had a greyhound named Guinefort (the French pronunciation may differ). His wife had died not long before, leaving a small child. The nobleman loved hunting and went out alone every day, leaving Guinefort to look after the child. One day he returned from hunting to find the child was not in its little cot. Guinefort's mouth was full of blood, the floor was smeared with it, and the dog was staring at him wildly and barking. He concluded the dog had eaten his child, drew his sword and hacked Guinefort to death. A moment later the child cried out from under the cot. Bending down, he saw a large python lying dead, its head torn apart, and beside it his child lying almost unharmed. He understood at once what had happened.

The nobleman was devastated. He buried the dog in front of the door and left his palatial house. Local peasants built a shrine over the grave of the dog that had been killed by its master while saving the master's child. For several hundred years people gathered there to pray for magnanimity. The shrine of Saint Guinefort still stands near Lyon, and some still go there to pray with broken hearts.

Many of us are born as human children but fail to become human as we grow older. There is a big difference between the way dogs are treated on Bangladesh's streets and what the woman named Nishi did. Those who were pained by Nishi's act can claim to be human.

In 1941, during the Second World War, Carlo Soriani, a factory worker in Tuscany in Italy, was returning home from work when he saw a small injured puppy in a dry ditch by the road. Without thinking whose dog it was, he took it home. Carlo and his wife nursed the puppy back to health and named it Fido. After that, Fido went with him every day as far as the bus stand when he left for work at the brickworks, and waited at the bus stand in the evening when it was time for Carlo to return, jumping for joy when he got off the bus. In December 1943 Allied forces bombed the brickworks where Carlo worked, in the small Italian town of Borgo San Lorenzo; the writer notes that such works there are factories, not open kilns like those in Bangladesh. Carlo was killed along with many colleagues. That day too Fido went to wait for his master, but Carlo did not return. The dog waited for several days without eating, then went home. For the next 14 years, until the day before he died, Fido came to the bus stand every day through storms and cold, sniffing the air and waiting for his master.

Professor Ueno of Tokyo Imperial University had a dog named Hachiko, whom he called Hachi for short. Every day Hachi went with the professor to the train station and returned home when the train left. In the evening, when it was time for the professor to return, Hachiko would be at the station. In 1935 the professor died of a heart attack at work, aged 53. But Hachiko's waiting did not stop. Every day he came to Shibuya station and hung around, wagging his tail when a train arrived and looking at each passenger as they got off. The writer says Japan then was not as civilised as it is today: people kicked him and the stationmaster chased him away in irritation. Then a Japanese journalist published Hachi's story with photographs in a newspaper, and Hachi immediately became a hero in Japan. Until his death, people came to see him every day when he appeared at the station. Inspired by the story, Japan gave Helen Keller two dogs. A statue of Hachi still stands at the station, and he is still regarded in Japan as a symbol of love.

Mahatma Gandhi famously said: "The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

A case has been filed against Nishi under section 429 of the Penal Code of 1860. That section says that anyone who kills an animal worth Tk 50 or more shall be punished with imprisonment of up to five years, or a fine, or both.

Whatever the complexities of this law, Nishi's act is a horrifying and shocking incident. The writer says he does not use the word "exemplary" lightly, but the Nishi affair truly deserves exemplary punishment, which would reduce people's cruelty towards animals.

The writer is a journalist and international affairs analyst.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.