A stray problem

The tiny state of Kerala is up in arms over free-range dogs. The menace of these dogs to people is real. They hunt in packs and if you happen to run into them at a lonely time of the night, you don’t stand much of a chance. The calls for relocation, sterilization, and outright murder of these animals are gaining traction as more attacks happen.

Dogs are a success story. They adapted to the changing world as humans conquered more territory and brought more land under control. They are one of only two animals that we brought into our homes. Stories of the strong bonds between dogs and humans abound. I particularly remember a story from China where the dog refused to budge from the spot on a bridge from where its human jumped to death.

Free-range dogs unlike their indoor counterparts have to hunt for their food and mate. They may not look as pretty or healthy as their indoor counterparts. But that doesn’t mean that they are weak or that they need protection. These dogs are like any other wild animal that you might find in a forest. The only difference is they have learned to live in our jungle.

We must not confuse the two types of dogs. Just as you would not go to the reserved forest and build homes for a tiger or feed it, we must allow these animals to live their lives as they were born to do. They have adapted to life in the concrete jungles we call cities. They know how to forage for food, and how to find shelter. They also mark out territory based on how much food is available and how much area they can defend.

By feeding these dogs in front of our homes, we are making them weak and making them forget the instincts that they need to stay alive and procreate. Now, they only need to defend the space in front of a gate. This means that they will not only forget how to forage for food, but they don’t get any exercise either. Earlier, they would cover larger areas to protect their territory. Now they stay within 20 feet of where they expect to be fed. Earlier, when their pups grew up, they would be chased away to go find their own territory. But we just increase the amount of food we give them to account for the pups. This means there is no pressure on the pups to move away, which leads to a larger pack.

The instinct to protect their food source means that any person approaching our gate is seen as an intruder that must be driven away. In a world where we have everything delivered to our doorsteps, this puts at risk all the delivery people who visit our home so that we don’t have to leave it. It is bad enough that these people have to risk navigating through traffic all day. But now they also are at risk of getting bitten by a dog because of our misplaced sense of kindness.

Rabies is one of the most effective killers known to us. According to the CDC, there are less than 20 documented cases of a person surviving rabies. This is not a monthly figure or an annual one, this is for all time since we started documenting such stuff. The rabies virus travels from the bite site to the brain. The person shows no symptoms until the virus enters the brain. Once in the brain, it is more often than not fatal. Now think of all those people coming to our doorstep each day and facing the possibility of being bitten and getting rabies. Someone working in delivery is usually having a bad time of it in life as it is. Their daily earnings are what most probably puts food on their family’s table. The pressure of feeding their family means the chances that they will ignore the bite to continue to earn or because they cannot afford the treatment are high.

The unkindest cut of them all is that we turn these lovely animals from independent animals to nuisances. We did this with sparrows and pigeons too. By feeding these birds in urban spaces, we clipped their wings. Now they don’t fly the kind of distances they can or are used to because they have to stay close to their food source. Today, we have people inventing poisons and repellants to keep away these pests. It is painful to think of these lovely birds as pests. Just as it is painful to think of these beautiful dogs as pests or menace that needs to be dealt with. Without being unkind to rats, we do have a situation where these dogs are going to be seen as something that must be eradicated.