AR-News: (India) IN THE WILD: Of stray dogs and other concerns...

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

By RAHUL ALVARES cna at sancharnet.in

Along with calls that I receive to rescue snakes, wild cats, monitor lizards
and birds, I also get calls from people who want me to do something about
stray dogs. Some of them are concerned that the strays are not getting
enough food, now that the municipalities are thinking of 'binless' cities,
whereas others believe that all stray dogs should be gassed outright (though
they never say that directly!).

Here's what I think about it. Stray dogs have become quite a problem in some
areas, agreed. And let's say stray cattle are quite a menace to traffic as
well. Till a few years before the ban on shooting, stray dogs were
mercilessly shot right on the streets or wherever they congregated. Special
'dog shooters' were employed for this purpose and this cruel practice was
carried out quite regularly, under the guise of controlling stray dog
population. Then the ban was brought into force, which sent shock waves
through the public. Every one assumed that the dog population would explode.
(My mother who is the president of an animal welfare organization received
quite a few threats which promised that a whole lot of stray dogs would be
sent to our house- kind of like when we were supposed to receive a hundred
bulls after the ban on bullfights!)
But the dog population has not exploded  -- in fact the numbers are
definitely decreasing. Also, you don't see too many mangy looking dogs
around in these areas - even litters of pups trailing after a tired bitch
are scarce.






full story:

http://www.goacom.com/news/getStory.php?ID=357 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/attachments/20040307/dd784b3d/attachment.html