Guest Column| Adopt a stray instead of feeding them on streets

Dogs that don’t find a foster home will unfortunately have to be eliminated in a painless way. This may not be possible for the entire country at a go, but a beginning can be made in Chandigarh. But who will bell the cat?

The provocation of writing this piece was a friend being bitten by a rabid dog while playing at the Chandigarh Golf Club this morning. The dog attacked the golf bag of another player in the group. Though it’s yet to be caught, it’s learnt that a few more persons at the club were bitten. Unfortunately, the club has the unique distinction of being home to hundreds of stray dogs and perhaps the only one to allow them to stray on the course. Most of these dogs are healthy and strong thanks to the generosity of golfers who feed them. We have deer visiting the course at night and we come across, as we did today, carcass of young sambar killed and eaten by a pack of dogs.

All dog lovers and those who care for dogs should start a campaign asking people to adopt stray dogs and look after them and follow the regulations that prevent pets being abandoned. (HT file photo)

Follow UK’s example

Now from the golf club to the national scene.

In 2019, India reported 72,77,523 cases of rabies due to animal bites, 97% due to dogs. Rabies can be fatal if not treated in time. The number of stray dogs in the country is anybody’s guess. Compare this with the US, where the total number of rabies cases is less than 10 annually. In the UK, there has not been a single case of rabies since 1914, simply because these and many other countries in the world have eliminated stray dogs. Why can’t we follow their example?

Before I answer this question, and give a radical solution that may incite dog lovers, I admit I’m not a dog lover, but have been living in a family where my wife, son and daughter-in-law are rabid dog lovers. We have always had pet dogs and my wife, in spite of having had anti-rabies injections four times in her life, remains in love with the pets. My son and daughter-in-law run a dog shelter for strays where around 70 of them are being looked after. Besides being provided food, they are taken for walks, vaccinated and treated. I can, therefore, appreciate the passion of dog lovers for canines. It is no surprise that at the national level, love for animals can express itself in the form of laws that have allowed the problem of stray dogs to continue year after year.

Hypocrisy dogs problem

Now for the solution and why we haven’t been able to find one. The simple answer to this is that most of us who express love for dogs are hypocrites. If you love someone then you are expected to look after that person in such a way that the person is not getting your attention or help once in a while but always. This is only possible when you keep dogs as pets, and not satisfy your love for dogs by occasionally feeding strays.

In our country, depending upon how lucky the stray dog is, like the ones at the golf course, they enjoy regular food, while others may be starving on the streets. Hence, to follow the example of the UK, where in the early 20th century it was realised that the only way to control rabies was to eliminate all strays, and make regulations for pet dogs. It has been more than 100 years, and not a single case of rabies from dog bite has been reported there.

All dog lovers and those who care for dogs should start a campaign asking people to adopt stray dogs and look after them and follow the regulations that prevent pets being abandoned. Dogs that don’t find a foster home will unfortunately have to be eliminated in a painless way. This may not be possible for the entire country at one go, but a beginning can be made in Chandigarh. But who will bell the cat?

If the US can have more than 7 crore dogs and another 6 crore cats as pets, why can’t the crores of animal lovers in India adopt one stray dog each and look after the pet according to regulations like those in the US or UK or Netherlands? Since this is unlikely to happen in view of the hypocritical attitude of dog lovers, the problem will continue, notwithstanding schemes to neuter stray dogs, and we will keep reading about packs of stray dogs mauling, and sometimes, killing infants, children and elderly in our villages and streets. brbajaj@gmail.com

The writer is a retired Punjab-cadre IAS officer in Chandigarh. Views expressed are personal.