My Colony -- Home to only me, or to the street dogs too?

At a young age, my experiences of going out of my house to play with my friends created a stereotype in my head that street dogs are dangerous and they bite, though I did not know the reason for the dogs biting. I could not even bear my grandmother’s dog licking me because it seemed to me like he had bitten me. 

As I got older, I met different people with pet dogs in their homes; I became comfortable with them. Then my best friend rescued a pup. I visited him often and watched how he took care of her. Soon I was able to pet her, have fun with her even holding her up close to my face. I did not know then that one year later, I would be adopting one of her pups. 

As I started getting comfortable with dogs, one autumn, I noticed that dogs in my colony have started a spate of attacks. Unable to bear it, I eventually asked my mom the reason for these frequent attacks. The answer I got was “Dogs bite mostly when they are on ‘heat’, for they are very energetic at that time.” 

Dogs of both genders have their own reason to attack during mating season. Female dogs become too protective of their offspring, and if you are scared of her, she would be able to sense your fear. So, to protect her pups and herself, she would attack in self-defence. Male dogs, however, are a different story. They too would have their reasons to attack, but the primary reason is that male dogs are very irritable during mating season. 

 While writing this article about dogs biting in my colony, located in Saket and (possibly) other colonies, one solution that came to my mind was spaying. If the Municipal Corporation spays about 80% of dog population in one colony, the attacks shall definitely be reduced, and canines won’t go extinct either.

When I shared this idea with co-members of Teensage as well as friends, they had different viewpoints and suggestions. “Spaying is cruel, Sanjay Gandhi used to do it to people”  said Krishna Abrol, a member of Teensage and a friend. 

As I was writing this article, my heart opened up for other creatures as well. Earlier I was used to the idea that Humans are the main creatures on this planet and animals are just, well there, for no important purpose. Humans are the most important. 

Actually many things have been happening in my life. I have been farming. I went to a workshop on bees and slowly I realised the importance of other creatures on this planet as well. In fact I felt that the planet is home for all these creatures too. So the dogs belong here as much as I do in my colony. 

But then this is easy while just thinking about it. But what does one do when the dogs in the neighbourhood are angry especially in the mating season? It is recommended to leave dogs alone in these times. I, however, do not look eye to eye at this idea. My advice would be to make friends with dogs of your locality BEFORE their mating season.

But if you are naturally scared of dogs like I was, you would ask “How do I even go near them?”   That is a problem that needs to be solved by society. 

After a lot of thinking, and talking to people, the best idea that came up was this; “What if stray dogs were invited into schools?  Children would understand that dogs mean no harm  if you don’t pester them or get scared of them.”  If children and teens get accustomed to dogs at a young age, it would be a lifelong learning for them to not pester dogs, and better, to make friends with them. They would understand that this world is for other creatures apart from humans. 

This idea would sound bizarre to most people. But some schools already do it. I heard from a friend that Shikshantar in Gurgaon has two dogs called Marsh and Mellow. The children love them and they walk into class rooms and lie there quietly. These dogs have always been there. 

Co-incidentally an article about a school in Assam taking plastic bottles as fees went viral. The school, Akshar foundation has many new ideas about education where children learn a lot of real world experiential things along with academics. The school takes in stray dogs and teaches children how to take care of them. They actually have an animal shelter and the students have looked after and found homes for 20 dogs, including injured and abandoned dogs in the first year. The school got help to vaccinate, sterilize and de-worm them. If they needed an operation, that too was organised and the children took care of the dog afterwards. 

The teenagers are employed to take care of the puppies -- feeding them, applying medicines etc. The students in turn learn empathy and basic medical skills. This model is going to be replicated in 100 government schools in Assam. This increases the bond between children and dogs. There is no reason why this cannot be implemented in schools in other states. This also reduces the suffering of street dogs and we must do it because this is their home.    

While writing this article, I realized that this land is not only for humans and dogs, but for ALL the creatures. So I took a deeper look into all the other colony animals and how we may be destroying their habitat. In the next issue I shall cover other animals of the colony, and how their habitat can get destroyed by our mistakes.

Neel Chaswal