People Should Have Fallen In Love With An Indian Stray Dog

India is home to one of the largest stray animals in the world. And, the most numerous among them are the stray dogs! Looks like it’s is the dog mating season! So many dogs & bitches in the Vashi area have given birth to puppies, the average litter size being 4-5 for each pair.

Compared to the pet dogs who enjoy free meals and good health care, these stray puppies are the victims of their own destiny. Born on the street, they often have no proper food or water and become the carriers of disease by living in unhygienic conditions. Many of them get injured by passing vehicles or lose their lives to starvation & disease. The puppies in this picture live in a gutter in front of my house.

Thanks to a kind man who regularly feeds them with milk, they still look healthier than most other street pups. I also drop some chapatis near the gutter from time to time which both the pups and their mother happily chew on!

Back in India after a year, I am most intrigued by that omnipresent animal, the Great Indian Stray Dog. As I have become older and possibly more mature, I am now able to fully comprehend the greatness of this feisty, versatile, and clever creature that blends so magnificently with the urban landscape of India, with its dug up roads, stinky smoky hot air, noisy streets, and real life abundance of Kathe Kollwitz prints.

It is unlikely that National Geographic will ever have these animals on its cover. The Great Indian Stray Dog usually sleeps during the day and with its ears drooping, its genitals grossly exposed, it may seem like the last animal Paris Hilton would want to kiss. But bear this in mind; the looks of the Great Indian Stray Dog can be deceptive. For when it is excited, its ears raised, its hips high and slender, its legs long and powerful, its strong jaws letting out a piercing bark, the Great Indian Stray Dog has an appearance good enough to qualify for being the symbol of any state or political party. One may argue that these dogs have been a victim of globalization, as is evident from their Jamaica style street culture. But at least these hoodlums have some personality as opposed to the arse licking, kiss seeking, shoe wearing character of the domesticated ones.

And these dogs know it all too well. It looks with disdain as rich fat people drag along with them collared hairy dogs from western lands, their tongues wagging. The Great Indian Stray Dog considers these useless opportunistic sloths in similar vein as popular culture disdains fat balding white men in Bangkok’s streets.

The Great Indian Stray Dog is also the only last animal to still believe that global warming is the biggest hoax of all times. After all, it has been experiencing something more akin to global cooling. That is because as much of the world is being converted to parking lots and more tires are being manufactured than new human legs are taking birth on earth, these dogs have lot more cool shaded areas to relax than ever before.

While animal rights activists have ensured that the urban sprawls are designated as protected reserves for them, not all is going well for the Great Indian Stray Dog. After all, since they are mostly reliant on human trash for food, these dogs are as much afflicted by obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes as we humans are. They are doing their best to cope up with this “Supersize all” culture by trying to be more active. I myself have been chased by them many times during my morning runs. But such tactics can be fatal and one can often see a martyr in the street, its entrails jutting out and offering a feast to the flies, its head mashed by the heavy tires that went over it, and its eyes being poked by a crow, the other great survivor of urbanization.

So next time you see the Great Indian Stray Dog, consider its life for a moment. And if you have some time, ask some stupid scientist to put a radio tag around one to experience firsthand how urban legends are made. Believe me; it would be far more exciting than watching endless repeats of snorting whales or pampered pandas with milk bottles on TV.

As a veterinary nurse I just wanted to put down my thoughts and experiences regarding adopting a street dog and transporting it back to your own country. Specifically countries with high quarentine regulations such as the UK or the USA. I am aware this can be quite a contraversial matter as emotions are very much a part of a decision like this.

Whilst I have met many people whom have fallen in love with an Indian street dog and decided to give it a better life by transporting it back to their own country. I fully emphasise with this situation and agree that it is very hard once you have built up a rapport with a street dog, to then leave it behind unsure of it's future. Believe me I have suffered from this on many an occasion.

However please take note of this: In the UK, as this is the only country in which I know the details of quarantine regulations, it is not possible to transport an animal from India on a pet passport system so an animal brought into the UK would have to spend six months in quarantine kennels once it had reached the UK. Six months kenneling in itself can be highly distressing for an animal, particularly one who is used to spending their life roaming stray in their own natural territory. Another stressful experience for an animal is the shipping itself in the noisy and cold hold of an aircraft although often animals are rightly sedated for this.

The next issue is the cost. Again I am only able to comment on the UK in which it costs around £3000-£4000 at least to kennel one dog in quarantine for six months and additional high costs for the shipping itself. I regularly volunteer and work as a development officer for an animal charity in north India. The charity treats sick/injured animals, mostly street dogs, at it's own small shelter and arranges for vaccination and sterilisation. It reaches and helps around 150 dogs a year. This is albeit a very small charity but is able to carry out all this work with an annual turnover of 90,000 INR so about £1000 if you'll excuse my crude currency convertion.

Thus the money you would spend on making one dog's life better by adopting them and shipping them abroad could potentially keep a small Indian street dog charity running for three years, potentially saving the lives of 450 dogs!!!!