Hold A Paw: Stray Dogs - Knowing Them.

Stray dogs.

I think I need not explain who they are, just peep out of your balcony and if you don’t live in an apartment on the 12^th floor of a posh building, you’ll get a glimpse of what I’m writing about.

Dog has been believed to be the best companion of man. Owning a dog, I understand what the thousands of quotes about dogs on the internet mean. If you ask me, I can go on writing about the benefits of companionship of dogs but I’ll spare you the boredom. Let’s get to some facts.

GRAPH SHOWING THE GROWTH RATE OF DOGS IN SOME OF THE COUNTRIES

Have you ever wondered why does India have such a large dog population? Where do so many dogs on the streets come from? Now, this is something most of us are unaware of.

India has long been home to the Pariah Dog, one of the world’s oldest canine breeds. Most rural families own at least one. As villages and rural areas turned into cities, these dogs became stray dogs.

Moreover, many insensitive dog owners abandon their dogs on the streets when they find looking after a dog a responsibility heavier than they can handle. Many irresponsible dog owners allow their pets to go out on the streets in the mating season of the strays resulting in a large population of mix breeds or mongrel dogs.

In slightly varied forms, the Pariah Dog has existed for over 14,000 years all over Asia and North Africa but India has a higher population of stray dogs. Wonder why?

The environment in India has conditions that encourage the population of stray animals – lots and lots of indisposed garbage and slums. Stray dogs are scavengers by nature and garbage provides an ample source of food for them. Moreover, stray dogs are also kept as free-roaming pets by people living in the slums and on the streets such as rag pickers.

Although there are stray dogs in developed countries too, but they are abandoned pets or runaway dogs. They are unable to survive on the city streets as they cannot find anything to feed on. And most of them are captured, housed in animal shelters and re-homed.

Unfortunately, in a country like India where even millions of humans can’t find a home to live, the government does not provide animal shelters that have sufficient resources and are managed properly.

Most of the people in India loathe stray dogs. And why won’t they?

Stray dogs are a great menace to the human population in India. Let’s see why.

Dogs are the most common carrier of rabies among the warm blooded animals. This fatal disease can be easily transmitted to humans. Sadly, India has the highest number of human rabies deaths in the world (estimated at 35,000 per annum)
Dog bites- Most of the bites occur during mating season and fight among dogs when the pedestrians and other nearby humans often get bit accidentally. Females with pups get really protective and aggressive towards people who approach their litter.
Barking and howling–accompanying dog fights usually over mating.

If the overpopulation of dogs is such a great problem then why don’t we simply kill them? Here’s why we don’t.

Mass killing of dogs as a population control measure was started by the British in the 19th Century. It was continued on a large scale (up to 50,000 dogs killed every year) after Independence by the municipal authorities all over India, with the aims of eradicating human rabies deaths and the stray dog population. By 1993, it was admitted to be a complete failure, since human rabies deaths had actually increased, and the dog population was also perceptibly growing.

Studies by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Animal Welfare Board of India (Ministry of Environment & Forests) show that dog population control measures which work in developed countries are unsuccessful in third world developing countries. The urban environment here encourages breeding of stray dogs, so no matter how many dogs were killed, they were quickly replaced by more.

When they are removed, the following things happen:

Garbage, the major food source is not removed so dogs from neighbouring areas migrate to the vacant territories.
The few dogs who previously remained behind due to fear, attack newcomers which causes violent and prolonged dog-fights. In the course of fights, dogs often accidentally redirect their aggression towards people passing by, so many humans get bitten.
Since they are not sterilized, the mating continues hence balancing the portion of the dogs killed. Females with pups become aggressive and often attack pedestrians who come too close to their litter.

Dogs breed at a very high rate (two litters of pups a year). It has been estimated that two dogs can multiply to over 300 in three years!

So apparently, killing the dogs is not the solution. Sterilizing and vaccinating them against rabies is.

Here’s why:

Each dog guards its own territory and does not allow new dogs to enter.
Since they are all neutered, they no longer mate or multiply.
The main factors leading to dog aggression – migration and mating - are eliminated. So dog-fights reduce dramatically.
With the decrease in fighting, bites to humans also decrease.
Since females no longer have pups to protect, this source of dog aggression is also eliminated.
Over a period of time, as the sterilised dogs die natural deaths, the population is greatly reduced.

It is a common notion that removing dogs from one area and releasing them in another area is an alternative solution to sterilizing them. That actually increases the problem. Since they would be entering the territory of other dogs, there would be a lot of dog-fights and eventually many humans would be bitten. Their original territories would also be left vacant, so new dogs would enter… and the chain would continue. This act is illegal and punishable under the laws in some places in India.

Many people might think why dog-lovers don’t adopt the stray dogs. (By the same logic, people who love children could be asked to keep the entire population of street children in their own homes!)

The thing my friends is, dog lovers have not created the stray dog population. They only try to provide them a better life. I am friends with various people who have helped a number of stray dogs so far and I’m happy to be one of such people. There are many organizations in India that have animal shelters, provide sterilizations and vaccinations for free. But sadly, most of the people are after the fancy breeds of dogs they see on the televisions, movies and the internet. Every time someone buys a dog, a dog capable of giving love and devotion missed its chance and has no choice other than living on the streets.

Many of us seek a remedy to our loneliness and communication gap with family by being highly active on social networks chatting with virtual friends for hours. For those, just try experimenting by spending some time with a four-legged friend, I can guarantee you that their silent presence and love will be more satisfying and fulfilling than the time spent scrolling and commenting on Facebook.