17/01/2024
Questions about Stray Dogs
Q1. Why are there so many stray dogs in India? Why aren’t there any in London and New York?
A1. Indian cities have two features that encourage stray animal populations – exposed garbage and slums. Neither of these exists in developed countries.
Stray dogs are scavengers and garbage provides an ample source of food for them. If this food source were not available, dogs would not be able to survive on the streets. Besides, in India and most other south-east Asian countries, stray dogs are also kept as free-roaming pets by slum-dwellers and street-dwellers such as rag-pickers.
There are stray dogs in developed countries too – but they are abandoned pets, or feral dogs (meaning dogs who were once pets but now live like strays). They are unable to survive or breed on city streets since they can find nothing to eat. Most are captured, housed in animal shelters and re-homed.
Q2. Why did the municipal corporation stop killing dogs?
A2. Mass killing of dogs as a means to control their population 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, in order to eradicate 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 too was visibly growing.
Studies by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Animal Welfare Board of India (Ministry of Environment & Forests) show that dog population control measures that work in developed countries are unsuccessful in third world developing countries because here the urban conditions are very different. Our urban environment encourages breeding of stray dogs; no matter how many dogs were killed, they were quickly replaced by more.
That is why, in January 1994, the killing programme was replaced by mass sterilisation of stray dogs. The sterilisation programme is carried out by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in collaboration with the municipal corporation.
Q3. If stray dog population control is the issue, wouldn’t it make more sense to kill the dogs or take them away?
A3. Removal or killing of stray dogs seems to be the most obvious method of controlling the population, but it has proved to be completely useless. This is because even when large numbers of dogs are killed, the conditions that sustain dog populations remain unchanged. Dogs are territorial and each one lives in its own specific area. When they are removed, this is what happens:
• The food source – garbage – still being available in plenty, dogs from neighbouring areas enter the vacant territories.
• Pups born and growing up in the surrounding areas also move in to occupy such empty spaces.
• The few dogs who escape capture and remain behind, attack these newcomers, leading to frequent and prolonged dogfights.
• Since they are not sterilised, all the dogs who escape capture continue to mate, leading to more fighting.
• During such fights, dogs often accidentally vent their aggression on people passing by, therefore many humans get bitten.
• Females with pups become aggressive and often attack pedestrians who come too close to their litter.
• Stray dogs breed at a very high rate (two litters of pups a year). Estimates reveal that two dogs can multiply to over 300 in three years!
Since dogs that are removed are quickly replaced, their population does not decrease at all. The main factors leading to dog aggression – migration and mating – continue to exist, and so does the nuisance factor.
Since removal of dogs actually increases dog-related problems, the effective solution is to sterilise the dogs, vaccinate them against rabies and put them back in their own areas.
Q4. But what’s the point of putting the dogs back after sterilisation? Doesn’t the problem just continue?
A4. No. When dogs are sterilised and put back in their own area, the population and the problems caused by dogs both reduce. Here’s how:
• 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. Naturally, the dogfights also reduce to a large extent.
• With the decrease in fighting, humans also become safer from dog bites.
• Since females no longer have pups to protect, they tend to be less aggressive towards humans.
• Over a period of time, as the sterilised dogs die natural deaths, the population is greatly reduced.
Please remember, there is NO overnight solution to the stray dog issue. It is simply not possible to wish all the dogs away. However, by sterilising stray dogs, we can make the population stable, non-breeding and non-rabid, and decrease it over time. The dogs will also become largely non-aggressive. On the other hand, if we remove or kill dogs, new dogs will enter their area, and we will have a continuously changing, unstable, aggressive, rapidly multiplying and rabid population of dogs. Which method do you think makes more sense – killing dogs or sterilising them?
Q5. Why don’t you dog-lovers just keep all these stray dogs in your own homes?
A5. Dog-lovers have not created the stray dog population. They merely try to minimise it through sterilisation, and to keep it rabies-free through vaccination. Moreover, even if a lot of stray dogs got adopted, the basic problems of vacant territories and dog replacement would remain.
(By the same logic, people who love children could be asked to keep the entire population of street children in their own homes!)
Q6. Can’t some of the dogs be released in another place?
A6. No, that would only lead to more problems. When dogs enter the territory of other dogs, there is bound to be a lot of fighting in the area in which they are released, and in the process more humans would get bitten. Their original territories would also be left vacant, so new dogs would enter … and the stray dog problem would go on forever.
Q7. What about rabies? Don’t all dogs spread rabies?
A7. Only rabid dogs spread rabies. Healthy ones don’t.
The World Health Organisation recommends mass vaccination of dogs as the only effective way to eradicate human rabies. Mass vaccination has led to a significant decrease in human rabies deaths in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Jaipur and Mumbai itself. Recently, Fethiye in southwestern Turkey implemented this programme and their dog-related problems have greatly reduced.
Q8. But didn’t killing of dogs help in controlling rabies?
A8. Killing of dogs was ineffective as a rabies eradication measure, since the catchers only captured healthy dogs and the rabid ones were left to spread the disease. Official sources also claim that half of human rabies deaths are caused by unvaccinated pets, so once again, killing stray dogs is of no use.
The killing method has failed to control rabies in developing countries worldwide – including Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, North Korea, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nepal, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Q9. I sometimes see dogs with skin problems and hairless patches – aren’t they all rabid?
A9. Skin problems and fur fall are NOT symptoms of rabies. Rabies affects the central nervous system, not the skin. Most people probably get confused because there is a skin disease called ‘scabies’.
Q10. How exactly do you sterilise the dogs? Are both males and females sterilised?
A10. Both males and females need to be sterilised, because while the females actually give birth to more dogs, the males are more aggressive and have a much higher nuisance value. Complaints from the public are almost always about males.
Both males and females are surgically sterilised under general anaesthesia, by qualified veterinary surgeons. The process is also called neutering. In the case of females, the ovaries and uterus are removed, and in the case of males the testicles are removed. In this manner an end is put to both mating and breeding. The dogs are kept for post-operative care for a period of 8 days and then released in their original location.
Q11. Ok, so the birth rate of dogs comes down over time…but what about dog bites?
A11. As you already know, dogs become aggressive mostly during mating time, when they cross into territories to mate and fight with other dogs whose areas they enter. Humans passing by get accidentally bitten during these dogfights. We can end this problem by sterilising all the dogs in our neighbourhood.
As testosterone levels come down after sterilisation, male dogs become less aggressive. Stray bi***es are usually aggressive only when they have puppies to protect, so sterilisation ends this problem as well.
Q12. Dogs bark and howl the whole night – how can you solve that problem?
A12. This is also related to what we have just answered. One, dogs usually bark and howl during dogfights, which take place at their mating time, so with sterilisation this problem also disappears. Two, they bark when new dogs enter their territory; as this movement stops with sterilisation, so does the barking, to a large extent. Three, dogs howl when they live and move in packs. With sterilisation the dog population reduces, and so does pack behaviour.
Q13. How did stray dogs originate anyway?
A13. India has long been home to the Pariah Dog, one of the world’s oldest canine breeds. In slightly varied forms, the Pariah Dog has existed for over 14,000 years all over Asia and North Africa. Most rural families own at least one. As villages and rural areas turned into cities, these dogs became stray dogs, who survive by eating garbage and are also kept as pets by slum-dwellers.
Callous owners, who abandon their pets on the street, also add to the stray dog population. Many irresponsible owners of pure breeds also allow their pets to mate with strays, thus producing a large population of mixed breeds or mongrels.
Q14. What is the difference between stray dogs and mongrels?
A14. ‘Stray’ is merely a legal term for an animal who is ownerless and homeless. It does not refer to the breed of the dog. When pure breeds are lost or abandoned on the street by their owners, they also become strays.
A ‘mongrel’ is a dog of mixed or unknown breed. Both the terms ‘stray’ and ‘mongrel’ are commonly – and mistakenly – used to denote a Pariah Dog. Pariahs are a distinct breed of dog, which come under the category of primitive or aboriginal breeds. Since they are not commercially recognised, this fact is not widely known.
In India, most strays are Pariah Dogs or mongrels. Once a Pariah or mongrel gets adopted as a house pet, it is no longer a stray.
Q15. Some people go around feeding stray dogs. Doesn’t that increase the stray dog problem?
A15. No. Stray dog populations are created and sustained by garbage, not by handouts from kind-hearted people! In fact, people who feed dogs often get them vaccinated and neutered as well, so they actually help to decrease the population of dogs. However, you must feed a stray in a responsible manner so that it does not cause any disturbance to the public.
Q16. Isn’t it sad that stray dogs have to eat garbage?
A16. Archaeological studies indicate that wolves started living near human settlements so that they could eat the garbage thrown outside. Dogs evolved from these wolves, and have always been scavengers. Unlike humans, they do not view garbage with disgust. In fact, even your well-fed pedigreed dog will often make trips to the dustbin when you are not looking! Of course, eating garbage has its risks, as once in a while a dog may eat something poisonous – but many strays lead long and healthy lives, with no other source of food.
Adapted from Welfare of Stray Dogs (WSD).
