CHENNAI: It was Ramu’s third day at the protest against jallikattu ban. He has been coming from Thiruvanmaiyur to the Marina on his bike twice a day, at 6 in the morning and after 10 every night. Being a four-legged animal himself, Ramu would not have liked to sit out on the protests to ‘preserve’ his larger counterparts-the bulls, his ‘parents’ believe.
Kumaresan S, Ramu’s owner, said, “We treat our dog Ramu like our son. So, we can understand how it feels when they accuse owners of the bull of ill-treating them.”
Like Ramu, other dogs also appear every once a while in the protests against jallikattu ban on the Marina. Sowbarnika’s cocker spaniel was nothing short of a star in the protest, with people stopping to click selfies with the two-year-old dog.
“Tabby is also here in protest,” said Sowbarnika, a 12- year-old, who was at the protest with her family.
The scene at the Marina has been as it always has these past four days, the protesters managing to keep up their energy levels. However, it has certainly taken a toll on their packets, say some.
MS Ashok, who had just finished making the sand sculpture of a bull at the Marina that took him around three hours, said, “I have not gone home in the last four days. Our group of friends buy at least 100 packets of food every day. So far, I’ve spent around Rs 10000.”
Though the ordinance was promulgated on Saturday, some said that they might still come every night just for fun.