We Must Stop Killings Of Stray Dogs In India

For almost a year, rates of viral canine distemper among stray dogs in Navi Mumbai, India have been on the rise. This disease is highly-contagious and very often fatal due to it's incurable nature. Dogs with no homes, left to wander the streets of Navi Mumbai aren't vaccinated, and therefore much more susceptible to viral distemper. The dog pounds have filled up, so sterilization to prevent more puppies from being born into this situation is no longer an option. Cruel civilians have now taken it upon themselves to brutally kill these diseased dogs.

Many inhumane attacks have been reported, such as puppies being fastened to fireworks to die a painful, brutal death. Other civilians attempt to poison the stray animals, leaving them to suffer. The Navi Mumbai officials are not punishing those who kill these innocent dogs, leaving the offenders free to keep committing awful crimes against sick, stray dogs.

If the Navi Mumbai officials were to start enforcing laws against the torture of homeless animals, those brutally attacking these dogs would finally receive punishment for their actions. Giving severe consequences to the civilians killing stray dogs would surely steer others away from these cruel acts of violence.

Instead of allowing the citizens of Navi Mumbai to take matters into their own hands, city officials should be striving to look for more humane and ethical ways of solving the distemper outbreak issue. Sterilization, also known as spaying and neutering, is the smartest solution to ultimately decrease the future stray dog population. While there is no cure for the current outbreak of viral distemper in canine's, the dogs suffering should not have to be subjected to horrible deaths.

More awareness should be brought to this issue to show the need for free vaccination clinics, which would stop distemper in a dog before it could run its rampant course. Most importantly, Navi Mumbai officials must start taking action against inhumane stray dog killings. Sign this petition and demand that the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation start enacting laws against civilians torturing stray dogs and severely punish those who do not abide by these rules.

Care About The Stray Dogs In The Yucatan

"Dog!" I exclaimed to my husband, who was driving our small rental car along a toll-free road that meanders slowly through the towns of the Yucatan, slowly meandering much like the many stray dogs along these roads. Sometimes the dogs would sleepily walk into the road and stop, find a warm spot and lay down in the sun. These dogs don't know about time; their previous moments determine their next and that is all. I rescued one of my two dogs a year ago from a street in Laredo. He casually trotted in front of a car that screeched to a halt to avoid hitting him while I closed my eyes and hoped for the best. When I peeked out to see that he'd made it back onto the sidewalk, I got out of the car and beckoned him over. He didn't have tags, a chip, "wanted" signs or any ads online. And so I took him home with me and he's been a part of my family ever since.

The last thing I wanted to do during my recent trip to the Yucatan was hit a dog, so I watched the roads vigilantly as my husband drove. We didn't hit any dogs while we drove around the peninsula, but we came close. Since there are so many stray dogs in the Yucatan, they don't get spayed or neutered and the stray dog population keeps growing. There isn't any sort of government-operated SPCA or Humane Society in the Yucatan. Private organizations try to combat the situation and a Planned Pethood in the Yucatan aims to aggressively implement spay/neuter programs throughout the region, but the problem is still widely apparent. For anyone who has traveled to areas of the world wherein programs like these aren't financed fixtures, stray dogs are usually just an unfortunate truth of travel.

Winding our way through the small towns between Cancun and Merida, the dogs came in all sizes and colors. We occasionally passed an identifiable breed – a Doberman here, a litter of newborn Rottweilers there – but most of the dogs we saw on these roads were that recognizable mix of everything. Usually tan with a medium build, these dogs were wherever people were. Begging for food or attention, they weaved their way through pedestrians and cars in the towns we passed. Some of them looked surprisingly healthy with shiny coats and smiling faces. Others were mangy and diseased. Some were dead.

The reality of the stray dog problem in places like the Yucatan cannot be negotiated without concerted effort. These dogs are part of the culture and landscape of this peninsula, for better or worse, and for all intents and purposes, they always have been. Ancient Maya communities included domesticated dogs. The Maya used the dogs for hunting, companionship, food and sacrifice. They fed the dogs corn and some Yucatec Maya today continue this tradition and give dogs tortillas. Spanish explorers in the 16th century visited Merida and documented the breeding, feeding and sale of dogs in the city.

Maya literature incorporated dogs, too. The Popol Vuh is the K'iche' Maya creation story. According to it, the gods failed horribly at their second attempt to make humans. The legend says that these humans were made out of wood. These humans were emotionless and would not feed the dogs, so the dogs retaliated in anger and destroyed them. The lesson in this story resonated with the Maya and they placed strong emphasis on respecting and feeding dogs. Associated with human life, renewal and death, dogs were of incredible symbolic importance to the ancient Maya. They held the job of leading people into the Underworld and protecting the home. Dog remains have been found buried alongside humans in Maya graves and royal homes. Presumably, the dogs were buried with their owners in order to guide them into the afterlife.

I clenched my teeth each time we passed these dogs, dead or alive. Dogs have long been an important component of human life. A dog was found buried with a human in Palestine in a 12,000-year-old grave. A dog and human were found together in a 14,000-year-old burial site in Germany. In my experience, most people who grasp the unique relationship between dogs and humans have a difficult time witnessing the kind of abundance of stray dogs I saw while navigating those small-town roads in the Yucatan.

As I was getting ready to leave the market in Merida one afternoon, two little girls walked past me, both cradling tiny, dirty puppies in their hands. I asked the girls how old the dogs were and if I could pet them. I crouched down in the plaza and held one of the one-week-old puppies. I didn't know whether or not they belonged to the girls or the street and in that moment, it didn't matter. Just like every other puppy from every time period and every part of the world, the little dog eagerly welcomed my affection.

Some Practical Steps To Help Stray Dogs Survive A Harsh Winter

Making sure stray dogs are warm in the winter is a bit harder than doing the same for feral cats, but we should do whatever we can to help them. Remember that for the most part, stray dogs have a harder time adjusting to cold weather than stray cats, and their options for finding warmth are bit more limited. Here are some practical steps you can take to help stray dogs survive a harsh winter:

1) If you know of a specific area where stray dogs sleep, consider leaving some warm blankets, etc. there for them to sleep on. Blankets used by dogs can become icy and cold during the winter months, so make sure you minimize the risk of this happening by placing the blankets in a covered area such as under a bridge, overpass, etc. Remember to also place some kind of protective layer under the blanket, so that it won't get wet from the ground. Thin layers of styrofoam, which you can buy at most bigger hardware stores, will usually do the trick.

2) Building a winter shelter for stray dogs is a bit more challenging than building one for feral cats. You can follow the basic principles of building a cat shelter (as outlined in my previous post), but you would have to make both the entrance and the whole thing a lot bigger. The matter is somewhat complicated by the fact that stray dogs often move around a lot. Still, if you feel that this is an option and you know of a particular dog that will benefit, please do this. Some people recommend straw instead of blankets as bedding in dog houses, because, as we mentioned above, blankets used by dogs in the winter can sometimes get wet and icy.

3) Remember the importance of donating blankets, old sweaters, and any other such items to your local animal shelter. In many of these types of shelters around the world, dogs are kept outside in the winter, and need blankets, etc. to keep warm. This is a very simple, yet very effective way to help these animals.

What You Need To Know Before Adopting Stray Dogs

There are hundreds of stray dogs roaming in the streets. They either get run over by speeding cars or starve perpetually. Most of us feel bad about the sorry state of these animals but very few have the gumption to come forward and adopt stray dogs as their pets. There is no doubt about the nobility of your intentions but when your pet is a stray, you need to take some essential precautions.

Here are few things that you need to do if you are adopting a stray dog as your pet
Let Them In: Feeding a stray dog and allowing it to sleep on your doorstep is not technically 'adopting' him or her. It is like giving alms to a begging child and bringing him or her home as a domestic help. If you want to adopt the stray as your pet, you have to let him or her into your home. The stray dog should be treated as a part of your family as your other pets, if you have any.

Dog Vaccination: Being a stray dog, it is definite that your new pet probably has not received any vaccinations. It is crucial to have the stray dog vaccinated. In fact, you should do the immunization first and only then allow the dog to enter into your house.

Is The Dog Sane: Mad dogs or Rabies infected dogs can be very dangerous. It is essential that you put your stray dog through a full medical check-up at a good veterinary hospital. This will include both physical and mental tests. Tests like rabies are the most important, but other minor disorders like fleas or a fungal infection also need to be treated.

What Breed Is It: It might seem like a trivial question, but the reason to determine the breed of your stray pet is very relevant? Certain dog breeds have their own set of disorders and there are different methods to care for them. For example, a Saint Bernard is a cold weather dog that cannot adjust in warm climates. Most stray dogs in India are mongrel dogs.

Potty Training: Once you adopt the stray dog and bring it home, you will have to start training it. This is not going to be easy if the dog is an adult. It is always easier to train puppies. Having lived on the streets, the poor canine will have no toilet training. You have lots of hard work to do.

Be A Good Dog: Living on the streets instils a killer instinct in stray dogs. They are naturally aggressive and this can be a threat to your kids and neighbors. You need to have a strong method to curb aggressive behavior of your adopted pet.

Take Stray Dogs In Our Homes As Members Of Our Family

When it comes to pets, many of us love the sight of a furry tail wagging. Most times, that furry tail belongs to a pooch who came from a reputable and conscientious source. The sad truth is, however, that many dogs end up on the street. There are several reasons for the number of stray animals, most of which are usually unpleasant, the result of negligence or irresponsibility or because pet owners - regardless how often they are told - don't grasp that dogs and cats can live as for up to 15 years and beyond.

Still other times, they simply run away and are never recovered and lastly and most troubling (at least to this author) are the ones who are abandoned simply because the dog is 'too big of a burden' or 'not what was expected'. Any way you look at it, the stray dog population is in the millions, spread all over the country. Some caring and enterprising people have taken it upon themselves to lighten the load placed on animal control services and shelters by adopting strays from off the street.

That isn't to say that every adopter is a prime candidate. Still, give them credit, animals seem to have a sixth sense about this sort of thing. When selecting a shelter from inclement weather and dangerous environs, they tend to hole up somewhere that they consider to be safe and potentially lucrative. Even so, if you open your door during a storm and see a sopping wet four-legged visitor, there are a few things you should consider before allowing him or her into your home.

You cannot equate domesticated and dogs of good breed with wild and stray dogs. Stray dogs have only a pack behavior that is inherited and marking of territory but nothing else. Whereas domesticated dogs are trained and live together with humans in our homes as members of our family.

Every dog of good breed needs to undergo sufficient training so that he is able to adjust to living in home with family and adapt to the ways as well as learn to obey rules and behave well.

One look at a well trained and well behaved dog will tell you how happy everybody in the family is and the dog is well looked after too. Because the dog is well behaved, it is well looked after and loved too.

On the other hand the untrained dogs are very wild and unruly. They often get into trouble with their owners due to their misbehavior without knowing why. They end up getting punished most of the times for no fault of theirs, all because they haven't been trained.

The owners love taking their well trained dogs with them and enjoy showing them off. Since they are well trained, they know how to behave and what is expected of them when they go out. They get to be admired by one and all.

A trained dog is able to live comfortably in our homes and manage to get by without getting into any problem. They understand the rules to follow and you can command them verbally and get them out of trouble and keep them safe. For example they know the rules to follow while crossing the road.

A trained dog can be guided on how to cross the road safely by listening to your commands and wait until the cars pass and then cross when it is safer to cross.

Check Around To See Stray Dogs And Treat Them As Friends

We often think of stray dogs as poor, homeless souls in need of loving families and homes with large backyards to run around in. With Canadian winters, this is most definitely true – strays need help.
But I’d like to provide some insight to the world of stray dogs in other countries. For the most part, they are starved and struggling to survive, but for all of you whose hearts break for strays, I want to share the story of a strong, happy stray who had the best of both worlds – family, and independence.

I lived in the Dominican Republic for two years, living and working as a local, and experiencing real life, outside of the resorts. Stray dogs are a part of everyday life; they wander the streets and beaches in search of snacks. They lounge around and make friends with residents and tourists alike. It is not an uncommon sight to see a dog snuggled under a palm-tree, relaxing in the shade on the beach. They roll around in the sand, play in the waves, and chase each other around. When you’re too poor to buy a television, watching the local dogs frolic and scamper around can be great entertainment, so long as you pay the entertainers for their efforts with a piece of your empanada.

Generally speaking, Dominicans treat street dogs with respect. They are not rejects or untouchables, often finding shelter and lunch in local businesses, as well as lots of affection from passers-by. They are sweet and loving dogs, occasionally attaching themselves to someone and following them around for the day.

If you live in lighter residential areas and suburb areas of your community, chances are you have probably seen someone's lost dog wandering around the neighborhood. You probably think about the family that the pet may belong to. Most of us want to be able to help get that dog back to its family, but may be hesitant to take responsibility of the situation. If you follow a few guidelines, handling these situations don't have to be overwhelming.

First off, you should never approach a stray dog if you have any concerns about your safety getting involved in the situation. If you are uncomfortable approaching it, call animal control and have them handle it. Most of the time the first place people check after they are unable to find their dog by searching locally is animal control.

If you are comfortable approaching the dog, once you've secured the animal, check to see if it has a number, or address, or GPS tracking device first. If no identifying items are found begin by asking around your neighborhood and immediate area. Most of the time, the dog probably lives within a few street of your residence.

If you and your neighbors are unable to determine the pet's owner, and you do not wish to take the animal to a shelter, you can make some flyers and post them in the area. You can call your local animal control and give them your name, number, address and description of the dog so they can notify the owners to get in contact with you if they are contacted.

Check around to see if the owner's placed flyers for it and check the lost dog section of your local news paper.

If time goes by and the owner is not located, the only choices are to take the dog to your local animal shelter or keep and care for the animal as your own pet or until the owner is eventually found.

More than likely someone is searching for their loved one. Reuniting a pet, which sometimes is viewed as a family member by some is one of the greatest things you can do for someone. Hopefully if you run across a lost pet you can help it find its way home.

Take A Lot Of Time And Effort On Stray Dogs

Hundreds if not thousands of stray dogs are found each year around the world with no one in sight and nowhere to go. These are often in great danger whether it's because of neglect on the owners' behalf, or because of unforeseen circumstances causing the dog to become lost and scared. What can be done in these situations can be a tricky choice, and a choice that will need to be done quickly. Simply driving past a suspected stray dog on the side of the road could end in the death of the dog minutes later. What to do when you find one is different in almost every case, but there are guidelines to follow to help save the life of a scared stray, and put the mind of the loving owner at ease.

To begin you should always be aware that the dog in question may be very aggressive due to being scared, lost, and possibly very hungry, so approach with care. If you feel them is not a violent one then you should still be very careful not to startle or scare them in any way, a scared dog could easily run onto a busy road or dangerous area. A good way to reassure the dog you are not there to harm them and to get them close is to use a strong smelling food such as tuna or other favorites as well as speaking gently and calmly to the dog.

When you finally get the dog under control and have no fears of aggressive behavior, reassuring the dog by stroking and talking to them will make it easier for others to deal with them. If you have leash or any other form of control with you then try and secure the dog with them, still being careful not to scare the dog. When you have successfully captured them or if you have had other problems making it difficult to capture then you should phone for help from the local animal care or control authority to ensue the correct procedures are met and the safety of the animal will be secure.

We see a lot of stray dogs today being towed away by vans and trucks from the local dog pound. Some of them were unfortunate enough to become victims of speeding cars or even some kids who are looking for someone to vent their anger on. This is a very disconcerting sight for those who love these loyal canine companions.
If you are one of those that wants to give these stray dogs new homes and families to show them the love and affection they deserve, then you are in for a lot of effort in the project since people who are in need of loyal household companies are not quite visible in the community.

You can always go around the neighborhood and asking each and every homeowner in the area if they want to adopt one of your stray dogs to call their own, but this will take a lot of time and effort on your end to successful pull this off.

Set Up A Web Site For Stray Dog Adoptions

One way to advertise your dogs to a lot of people who might want a canine pet to give their life a little zest is to use the Internet. Considering that there are millions of people surfing the Net everyday, you can be sure that you will be flooded with mails and request to adopt one of your stray dogs from time to time after you set it up.

But if you want to be successful in this project, then you might want to make it interesting to the online public by posting dog pictures of your stray canine companions to boost their appeal. Let's face it; you would even want to adopt a pet if you don't know what it looks like, now would you?

Taking Dog Pictures For Upload

When you take pictures of your dogs to be uploaded on the Internet, you need to consider some minor details to ensure that you won't encounter any problems later on.

One such concern should be the quality of the photos that will serve as the main profile of your dogs on the Internet. You might want to groom your canine friends a bit before you take their picture. In fact, you want them to be nice and presentable when you showcase their photos on the Web.

You might want to run your dog pictures through a photo-editing program to adjust brightness or to clean up some noises to come up with high-quality photos that will appeal to the interest of possible adoptees on the Web.

Take Care Of The Stray Dogs And As Close Personal Friend

If you live in lighter residential areas and suburb areas of your community, chances are you have probably seen someone's lost dog wandering around the neighborhood. You probably think about the family that the pet may belong to. Most of us want to be able to help get that dog back to its family, but may be hesitant to take responsibility of the situation. If you follow a few guidelines, handling these situations don't have to be overwhelming.

Well you may look at the animal and feel sympathy with its plight. But before you say yes to your child, consider this. When you take on an animal (of whatever kind) you are taking on a new family member and all the responsibility that go with it. A pet is not another thing in the house. It has a personality, a sense of loyalty to family members (if you treat them right) and has needs just like any person would.

Dog's ancestors were able to take care of themselves in the wild, but modern day dogs have been so domesticated that it is not an option for them in this day and age. Have you ever seen a perfectly healthy stray dog? I think that would be rare unless he wandered into your yard only a few days after being lost.

In this situation your first responsibility is to take care of the dogs immediate needs. You also want to take the dog to the vet to have him checked out. You should then do whatever it takes to find the dogs owners. After all, this is someone's pet and they may be mourning the loss and are desperately looking for it.

Look for posters that have been put up and consider making your own to let people know that a dog has been found. Do everything possible until all efforts have been exhausted.

If the owner has not been found then start looking at your options. If you are entertaining the idea of keeping the dog, then decide who is going to be the main caregiver. Is that you, or the child? If it is the child then realize that the child knows nothing about taking care of a pet. Don't assume that the child will know what to do. Although, one thing you can be sure of in most cases, is that a child will give unconditional love for the dog. As a matter of fact, children won't look at them as pets but as a close personal friend.

If the child is going to take care of the dog then you will have to teach them how to do this.

1) They need food and water daily, obviously. If it is a large dog that eats a lot it can certainly dip into your budget.

2) Dogs need to be exercised daily for good health. A good run in the back yard or a throwing of the Frisbee or stick can be very therapeutic for the dog. Dogs do not respond well if they are not shown affection and are exercised every day.

3) They need regular veterinary shots and flea protection and heartworm medication. Regular baths are a must, and don't forget you need to take care of their teeth. There are simple solutions to that like a tooth biscuit.

4) Dogs will respond to training if you make it a fun and rewarding experience for them. They will look forward to it because it's a game for them. They will follow the rules of your home if you are consistent.

If you are willing to do all this then not only will you enjoy the relationship you build with your dog but you will also earn their loyalty and trust. Don't be surprised just how much of a family member your pet can be. Your child will also learn some important lessons in responsibility for others. It can be a beautiful thing!

We Should Protect The Homeless Stray Dogs

Listening to yet another constituent complain about the thousands of neglected, scruffy mutts that prowl the streets of his town, Mosquera Mayor Luis Alvaro Rincon went ballistic. "A street dog," he ground out, "is a dead dog."

His fist pumping and voice rising as applause at the community gathering grew, he said, "It's an order. Round them up and kill them!"

Rincon's exasperation last summer was in some ways understandable. This suburb of Bogota has long been a dumping ground for canines whose owners are too uninterested or financially strapped to care for them. Now there may be 30,000 stray dogs here and in two adjoining suburbs, Madrid and Vaca."I know environmentalists won't like it, but if they don't, they should come to Mosquera and take a dog home with them," Rincon said.

Driving around the Porvenir Rio barrio, one gets the impression that there are more dogs than people. They seem to be everywhere: foraging for food, lounging in the shade or sauntering across streets and alleys.

Animal control has been a foreign concept in Mosquera, a city of 90,000 with no dog pound. One of Colombia's fastest-growing municipalities, Mosquera in recent years has had more pressing budgetary needs, including building a new hospital and roads and buying uniforms and lunches for the growing numbers of poor schoolchildren, the city's health officer, Paola Linares, said in an interview.
As the stray dog population has grown, so has the health and safety crisis. The level of fecal dust is alarming, and rising, and 89 dog bites were reported last year, a 27% increase from 2008. "We had more cases of dog bites than measles last year," Linares said.

Rincon's outburst sparked little outcry at first. But in October, an animal rights activist put the video of Rincon's speech on YouTube. That led to hundreds of angry phone calls and e-mails to City Hall from animal rights groups.
"This kind of discourse contributes to a disrespect for life in Colombia. Is it that much of a leap from mass murder of animals to that of humans?" said Albeiro Ulloa, an animal rights organizer in Bogota.

Protests were capped by a march here last month of 300 animal rights defenders, who were confronted by an equal-sized crowd of Rincon's defenders.

Subsequently, tempers cooled and both sides agreed to work on a happy, or at least more humane, resolution of Mosquera's canine crisis. Rincon retracted his "capture and kill" order and agreed to join a task force with animal rights leaders aimed at raising private funds to build a regional dog pound.

The panel also will try to change laws to restrict the sale of dogs and enforce vaccination laws.

"We have an imbalance in that there are too many dogs," said Ivan Duque, a veterinarian who is advising the task force. "But it's not the dogs' problem, it's ours, the human beings. We are the rational ones."

To Reduce Stray Dogs

Dr. Judith Samson-French is coordinating a pilot project to test the new birth control technology on dogs living on the Tsuu T'ina Nation next to Calgary. She hopes one day it might reduce the population of unwanted dogs and prevent attacks, such as the one on the 10-year-old boy mauled to death on a reserve in Saskatchewan on Saturday.

Last summer, Samson-French worked with Julie Felber of the Animal Rescue Foundation and Lori Rogers, an animal health technologist at the Calgary Zoo, to implant contraceptives in 15 female reserve dogs.

The contraceptive implant, called Deslorelin, was introduced in 2004 by Peptech Animal Health, a small biotech company in Australia. It suppresses reproductive hormones in animals for 12 to 18 months and is used in zoos, said Samson-French.
She estimates there are at least 700 dogs on the Tsuu T'ina reserve, but fewer than 20 per cent are wanted.

"The natives have pets that live inside with them, dogs that have names and are cared for. Then there are all the dogs that live outside, dogs they do not want and who keep reproducing. I call them dogs with no names. They're the problem," said Samson-French, owner of the Banded Peaks Veterinary Hospital, which regularly deals with an overflow of injured, unwanted dogs from the neighbouring reserve.
"We have the same problems, but in the city we pay taxes and we have the pound and dogcatchers to deal with our problem, which is invisible to us. They don't on the reserves. And they're overwhelmed by having five or six dogs scavenging around their houses."

Some are feral, born in the wild. Some come from "non-natives who dump their dogs on the reserves," said Samson-French.

Having been domesticated for 15,000 years, abandoned and feral dogs no longer know how to hunt or find water, she said. They live only two to three years, falling prey to cannibalism, starvation, parasites, predators or freezing to death. Female can have up to 15 pups a year.

"The best solution we've been able to offer so far is spaying and neutering, but that's not making a dent," said Samson-French. "It's too expensive and too time-consuming.

"That's why the contraceptive implant program is fantastic. It takes one minute, it's one-third of the cost, and the dogs don't leave the reserve."
The implant costs $68, compared to the $250-$500 it costs to spay a female dog.
With the permission of Tsuu T'ina residents, 15 friendlier, semi-feral dogs were caught using food and held in a volunteer's arms. A small area between the dog's shoulder blades was cleaned and injected with a local anesthetic. The implant -- along with a microchip to identify the dog -- was then injected beneath the skin.
At the same time, the dogs were given a rabies shot and a deworming tablet.
Of the 15 implanted females, one was killed by a cougar and the 14 remaining have not had puppies, said Felber, dog program co-ordinator with ARF, a non-profit group that rescues unwanted dogs and cats from First Nations and rural areas and finds them homes.

The plan is to follow the remaining 14 dogs and re-implant them every year until 2011, identifying them by their microchips.

Samson-French said she's applied for a grant from the provincial government to expand the study to include 50 more female dogs on the Tsuu T'ina and the Siksika First Nation and hopes to publish her findings.

And in two weeks she's going to Mazatlan to look into starting a pilot project to sterilize street dogs with Deslorelin. Unwanted dogs are a big problem in Mexico and other developing countries.

The downside of the implant is that it is temporary, it's currently available on a limited basis and only veterinarians can implant it. She's hoping those regulations change and technicians will be able to implant it, making it widely available.

Veterinarian Audrey Remedios, who's volunteered with the Alberta Spray Neuter Task Force on the Blood reserve near Cardston, is interested in the outcome of the pilot project: "If it works, wonderful."

But she thinks recapturing semi-feral dogs may be a problem, and trying to round up feral dogs will be next to impossible.

Jack Glacer, 79, has been going out to feed stray dogs on Tsuu T'ina three times a week for at least 10 years. He's heard some mothers on the reserve express concern about their children's safety around the dogs.

Stray Dogs,Now And Future

The increased traffic there due to more people being off from home and/or school, there is also a problem with dog owners letting their often large and vicious sounding pets run loose in their unfenced front yards as they work on their cars, in their yards, or just in their open garages. A small number of these chase me down the street as I pass by (the dogs, that is). Almost always, when this happens, the owner catches on and frantically yells at the dog to stop. What morons. They obviously care little about their pets, and even less about any pedestrian who happens to walk by their house. After all, animals not used to being on the street are prone to getting run over!

Usually, though, and often to my amazement, many dogs are very well trained to stay within the confines of their "territory" in the front lawn, as ferociously and loudly they may bark at me. But that is still an unwarranted nuisance, in my opinion. And I know people who would be scared to death trying to walk past such a house.

I have a very intricate running course that winds up and down miles of residential roads and past a few hundred homes. In the past couple of years, I have encountered dogs running loose on just about every stretch of road at different times. Most of the time they growl and bark at me as they notice me, and a few run after me a bit. But the fact still remains that, in the entire time I have run what amounts to about two thousand miles through my neighborhood, complete with its sometimes straying canine residents, I have never been bitten. In fact, the last time I suffered a dog bite was in February 1973, when I was running with my high school track team in Davie, Florida.

Not having suffered a dog bite in 39 years is quite a contrast, though, to what happened earlier in my childhood. For I grew up in the 1960's, and society (at least where I lived) treated dogs very differently. Dogs ran loose around my neighborhood just as cats did (and still do). The kids all got used to the different dogs who hung around, some of whose homes were unknown. I can't begin to count the number of times I would see a stray dog and approach it to pet it (if it didn't approach me first). We had a dog ourselves at the time, but didn't let it run loose. But when we would take Michelle out for a walk, her presence would almost invariably attract a multitude of neighborhood dogs to keep her "company" (and she was spayed).

We did know of certain "mean" dogs behind fences that we weren't supposed to get near, but the general feeling was that dogs liked us and we liked dogs. Very little fear. And still, during all of this in my childhood, I recall being bitten lots of times. But we never made a big deal about it. So when I got bitten that afternoon in February, I just continued running and then showered and went home. I told my mom about it, and to be safe, she drove me down to get a tetanus shot. The next day at school I was confounded by my track coach's angry consternation: how could I just leave like that after being bitten by a dog? It was only then that the very real danger of rabies was impressed upon me and how oh-so very dangerous stray dogs were...

This fear of stray dogs is probably much more warranted today than it was in my childhood, though. For back then, running around loose outside conditioned dogs to be more accepting of people in general. But in today's era of leash laws and rules against dogs running loose in public, those dogs that do occasionally "break out" are much more likely to see strangers as enemies to be feared and attacked. So I'm afraid I'm not likely to ever regain my relative openness to chumming up with stray dogs...

Dog-Hunters Are Targeting A Stray Dog From Russia’s Far East

Dog-hunters are targeting a stray dog from Russia’s Far East whose moving story of love and loyalty made headlines all over the world.
“Yakutian Hachiko” captured the attention of the public after local residents found him beside his dead mate. The grief-stricken dog was guarding the body in biting cold for as long as two weeks – just like his Japanese prototype, popularized in the West by a recent Hollywood drama.
Some people, however, have turned out to be less big-hearted than the four-legged hero. Soon after the hound’s story spread around the globe, a sickening Internet hate campaign was launched against the brave animal.
“Angry youngsters have posted numerous messages all over the Internet, calling on Hachiko to be poisoned,” Alla Komarenko, head of a local animal charity, told Interfax. “Some even proposed to catch him and make a shish kebab out of his meat. They say stray dogs are dangerous and need to be exterminated.”
Worrying about the dog, local residents started calling animal rights organizations, begging them to protect Hachiko. The hound was soon taken to a kennel provided by the charity. In the next few days, he will be vaccinated and issued a pet passport. After that, kennel staff hope to find Hachiko a new home.
“An old bus driver was intending to take him,” Komarenko said. “The man lives in a private house, and he already has a dog. Unfortunately, he said later that his family members were against the idea.”
Earlier, a woman from Cologne in Germany offered to adopt the dog. The vets, however, say that Hachiko may not survive such a long flight, especially if he were to be sedated in accordance with international rules.

Where There Are Demolitions, There Are Stray Dogs

Where there are demolitions, there are stray dogs. Starting from Qing Hai Ying 3 years ago, stray dogs left in the reconstruction areas become common scenes in Beijing. While their owners move on to new lives in new homes, sadly these once beloved dogs are left behind, facing the rubbles of the old home as well as their unforeseeable future.

Last year, Rui Jia (瑞家), a rescue team for stray animals made a clip called “The watch keep in ruins”(废墟中的守望), telling the sad stories of those pets abandoned in Qing He Ying, a reconstruction area in Chaoyang District, Beijing. “The dogs are abandoned because of demolition, they may be cooked once get caught.”said a villager in the clip.
This year, Beijing will have over 50 suburban villages demolished, which means even more pets will be abandoned. It is a fact, and heavy. Most volunteers feel that their abilities fall short of their wishes to help：to save, but they don’t have enough people and resources to support the ongoing rescue; not to save, but those creatures are also lives.
Its name is Cang Cang. Sitting in this roofless high land like a statue, Cang Cang looks and looks and looks at its old home’s ruin opposite. It would not step away from the spot, sometimes its tired eyes will gaze at the passers-by. When evening falls or rain drops, it crunches into the pieces of asbestos tiles behind.
After the demolition of home, Xiao Xiong went out for food at day time and come back to "keep the home” at night. A neighbor sympathized it and kept it home for a few months until later she had to move away too. Then another family took Xiao Xiong in, but it managed to go back to its original home. No one saw it again. Volunteers was told that it was bitten to death by a big dog. May be this is its fate, to live and die along with its home. May be in its heart, it believes there is only one home, and one owner.
Owner moved during Xiao Hua’s pregnancy. She gave birth to her doggies in the very place in the world that she felt safe – home, which is later bulldozed together with the doggies. Xiao Hua kept lingering around the ruins since then. She would go and watch door at night for those who give her meals. Temporarily she was taken in by a kind family.

Care For The Stray Dogs

Sometimes I get really frustrated by LCSH. For instance, today I have a work about a stray dog. The subject heading for stray dogs reads Feral dogs. The dog in question is NOT wild or feral, but merely STRAY. Using Feral dogs would be misleading, so I had to settle for just DOGS. This is not the only instance where something like this has come up in the course of cataloging on a daily basis. Are there any subject headings that you think are particularly misleading? I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for the rant.
For decades the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai used to kill up to 50,000 stray dogs annually. The method used was electrocution. Recentlyh, in response to demands, dog-killing was replaced by mass sterilisation and immunisation of stray dogs.
Under this programme, stray dogs are surgically neutered and then replaced in their own area. They are also vaccinated against rabies.Since territories are not left vacant, new dogs cannot enter.Mating and breeding also cease. With no mating or crossing of territories, dog fights reduce dramatically.Since fighting reduces, bites to humans also become rare.The dogs are immunised, so they do not spread rabies. Over time, as the dogs die natural deaths, their numbers dwindle.
The dog population becomes stable, non-breeding, non-aggressive and rabies-free, and it gradually decreases over a period of time.It costs $15 to feed, sterilise and immunise ONE dog.
When we travel to India we will be making buying food for stray dogs and making a donation of whatever funds we receive so we can help end some of this animal cruelty and become part of the solution! I will be taking photos throughout the journey so you can be sure your money is going straight to the cause.

There Are No Stray Dogs In Vermont

When I was a child, I relied on stray dogs. They comprised the available pet pool. Around home, dogs were just dogs. Unless, of course, they were hunting dogs. Even a poor man would pay $300-$400 for a good hunting dog. Paying good money for a pet was unheard of … at least in my circle. Fortunately for me, I lived just outside the town limits. Every year, when the dog tags were due, miraculously, dogs would appear in our neighborhood. Great dogs, of mysterious ancestry. They would ramble into our yard with delineated rib cages, begging for scraps. Yes, they did turn over the trash barrel on occasion. I loved them all. My dad, however, did not share my universal acceptance of them. His instructions were not to feed them (which we did) and rock them to chase them away (which we did not).
They did not stay for long … a few days … but for that brief time, they were mine. Understand, in my world a stray dog was an endangered specie. Stray dogs that turned over the trash barrel in their search for food got 120 volts on their second trip (Dad and the neighbor were both electricians). There was a particular mutt once that I really got attached to and begged Dad to let me keep it. Dad was walking out of the woods with his rifle at the time. He just smiled and told me that if it came back to the house again, I could keep it. It didn’t and I did not figure it out until I was much older.

Here’s my revelation. There are no stray dogs in Vermont because of the animal rights people and the animal-lovers. No such thing as the wild and care free life on the road for a dog here. You will never see a dog hopping a freight and there no hobo dog encampments under the bridges. Were a dog to strike out here, minutes later, he would be pounced upon by hoards of animal rescuers. Before he could learn to spit tobacco, the dog would be warm, fed and lounging in front of someone’s fireplace. He might even be wearing a new jacket. It is the demise of the Huckleberry Finn’s of the dog world. Greyhounds probably have it worse. People can’t wait to snatch them from the clutches of the dog tracks. Ironically, I have never seen a rescued greyhound running. It must be a no-no in the rescued world. Locally, the people raised about $250,000 to build a new facility for the ASPCA. Even in winter, people sleep under the bridge in Brattleboro and the homeless shelters overflow. Whoever said that every dog has his day must have lived in Brattleboro at some point.

Stray Dogs Plaguing The Country

Government officials have expressed concerning in a report about stray dogs plaguing the country.Member for the Fourth District Dr. Vincent Scatliffe brought up the issue during a Standing Finance Committee (SFC) meeting, asking if anything could be done about stray dogs in Road Town.Chief Agricultural Officer, Agriculture Department, Bevin Brathwaite said the department has launched a ‘Loose Dog’ campaign and the department “recently received a tranquilizer gun that would aid in the capture of loose livestock”.
Part of the activities is to visit the dump sites and euthanize the animals, Brathwaite said.According to the report, Brathwaite said “as recent as last week they captured and euthanized three dogs in the Road Town area. They realise there is a problem in that area”.Premier Ralph O’Neal stated that “the question of dogs has been plaguing the British Virgin Islands for years”.In speaking with one of the farmers on Virgin Gorda, the premier was told that the farmer lost 20 of his animals, which is a heavy lost for a person who depends on farming for a living.
Premier O’Neal asked if the initiative could be launched in Virgin Gorda. Brathwaite responded by saying he recently learned of the situation when he spoke to farmers on Virgin Gorda, and he is aware that it is also a problem on Tortola.The premier stated that “we cannot allow farmers animals to be destroyed and if owners do not keep their dogs tied, then they will pay the price”.

Sterilize More Than 10,000 Stray Dogs Ahead Of The Games In Measures

Athens, host of the 2004 Olympics, launched a plan last week to sterilize more than 10,000 stray dogs ahead of the Games in measures condemned by animal rights groups as ill thought-out and insufficient. The city said the 1.8 million euro ($2.11 million) project, to be officially unveiled on the weekend, will halt the growth of a huge population of stray dogs roaming the streets of the capital before the start of the Olympics. "The sight of thousands of stray animals living without care in the city streets constitutes an insult to us as civilized people," Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyanni, who plans to give 20 strays up for adoption on the weekend, said in a statement.
The project, co-funded by the city and the government, aims to collect, sterilize and tag the dogs, before releasing them again. Two mobile vet units will monitor their health. But animal rights groups say the plan does not cover the needs of strays. "This cannot be just a one-day event with some promises and cute puppies as gifts," Marianna Polichroniadou, head of a newly-founded animal rights group said this week. "It has to be followed up with actions that safeguard the dog's survival long-term and this plan doesn't cut it." Dog lovers say city authorities are also responsible for killing more than 3,000 dogs in the past months, to rid the capital of the animals ahead of next year's Games. "Why have all the dogs suddenly disappeared from the city center and why are they launching this plan now?" Polichroniadou asked.
I guess you could call this the 15 year plan for ridding the city of stray dogs. Fifteen years because that is the average life of a dog. The idea is that if you neuter all the dogs and then set them free again, they won't be able to have puppies and in 15 years they should all be gone, provided no other un-neutered strays join them. The plan that I have heard is to have all pets implanted with a chip so they can be tracked if irresponsible owners let them go. When they are picked up both the pet and the owners will be neutered.
One final note: When I was in Athens in November of 2003 we went out to dinner in Psiri at a famous taverna which specializes in paidakia (grilled lambchops). As usual we ordered too many and after we finished we got a 'doggy bag' to take with us to give to the street dogs. There is an old woman who wanders around Psiri with a half dozen dogs. We found her and asked if she would like the leftovers for her dogs. She looked at the leftovers and asked if it was OK if she ate them too. Of course we said it was. I bring this up only to remind people to remember to take pity on the human strays who may be in need of a helping hand too.

Stray Dogs Are A Problem In Athens

Stray dogs are a problem in Athens. Not because they will attack you or chase you through the city streets. It is mostly an image problem. You have this big modern city and wandering around, lounging in the shade, solo and in packs, are dogs. Some are pets, some are former pets and some have never been pets at all.
The downtown dogs are pretty well behaved. Many are streetwise, literally. My mother was curious as to how they could cross some of the big Athens avenues so she watched them. She discovered that the dogs would go to the pedestrian crossings and stand there. No they did not know that the little green man meant it was OK for them to cross. They would wait until some humans came and then cross with them. Plaka and downtown dogs are very good natured. They are around people all the time and have few needs, all of which are available in the neighborhood: food, water and shade.
Some of the dogs have hob-knobbed with the rich and famous. Bill Neil, author of Southern Cooking, told me of a night on the Acropolis when he and REM's Michael Stipe snuck in and befriended the strays that live on and around the ancient rock. I have seen stray Plaka dogs grooving to the Chieftans at the dirty corner in front of the monument to Lysacratus. Those of you who have seen the movie FOR THE LOVE OF BENJI may recall that when Benji gets lost in downtown Athens he is befriended by one of the Plaka dogs who took his siestas in the ancient agora. In fact it was the Plaka dog that protected Benji when the mean Dobermans that belonged to the bad guys came searching for him to find the micro-chip implanted in his fur, or collar (I forget which).
A few years ago Kiki Zikou at Dolphin Hellas told me I needed to write an article about the dogs in the old airport. The next time I left Greece, sure enough there were dogs wandering around the terminal. With the new airport so far out of town it is unlikely that you will see any dogs and I am off the hook for the article I never got around to writing. Even so you have to wonder about a country that had dogs wandering around the airport. Maybe they were undercover police dogs. Maybe they belonged to an airport employee who could not leave them home in the apartment because they barked and bothered the neighbors so they just came to work with him. Most likely they were like any other stray dogs in Athens. They are such a part of the landscape that you don't even notice them.
I remember coming home early one morning from the Plaka to my neighborhood in Agia Paraskevis in 1972. As I was walking up the hill I saw a pack of about twenty dogs coming towards me. This made me a little nervous. Who knew whether these were pets, or strays looking for a lone human to rip to shreds and devour without a trace. How many people, whose disappearance off the face of the earth had fueled stories of alien abductions, were merely eaten by packs of wild urban and suburban dogs? As these thoughts went through my head I realized that leading the gang of dogs was Reinhart, our family dog who lived in a suitcase on our back porch! He came up and greeted me with a sniff and a wag of his tail and then continued on to do whatever it is that packs of dogs do at four in the morning. (I was actually proud that our dog was the leader of the pack).

Beware Of Stray Dogs

India has the highest number of deaths caused by rabies every year. The main source of this disease is dog bites. Despite huge number of deaths, there are not many hospitals that are dedicated to cure rabies patients. I am quoting from the report published in Hindustan Times: Beware of stray dogs! An estimated 19,000 people die every year due to rabies in India, accounting for nearly 35 percent of such deaths worldwide.According to data available with the World Health Organisation (WHO), nearly 55,000 people succumb to rabies mostly caused by dog bites. Of this, Asia accounts for 31,000 deaths.The majority of the cases were reported from India followed by Bangladesh with about 2,000 deaths.The global health watchdog also said that an estimated 10 million are treated each year after being bitten by dogs. Of this, 1.8 million receive the treatment in India alone.According to H K Pandey, chief spokesman, World Health Organization (WHO), the number of stray dogs in India is higher compared to other countries and the government should vaccinate the dogs. India has only one anti rabies hospital, Maharishi Valmiki Infectious Diseases Hospital in Delhi. According to Rajender Singh, chief medical officer of Valmiki hospital, lack of awareness among physicians about this disease is the major problem. There are many physicians in the rural areas that do not know about this disease. Dog, cat, jackal, bat, camel and other warm blooded animal bites mainly cause this disease and if the patients are treated as soon as possible then, they would come around.India may have been observing rapid economic growth but all the sectors of the country do not observe this growth and all the people do not enjoy the benefits of this economic growth. In India not all people have access to doctors and medical treatments. The country has already topped the charts in terms of the number of HIV infected people. Few months ago, Dengue caused havoc in the country. Now, here is another major disease spread by stray dogs. I hope Indian government takes necessary steps to protect its people from this deadly disease.

Poor Stray dogs in India

There are more than 30 million stray dogs in India, in urban as well as rural areas. A good number of these dogs in the urban setting are more community dogs rather than feral. Stray dogs is used to refer to lost and abandoned pets or others that had been socialized to humans before taking to the free-ranging life, and feral refer to those who have lived all their lives apart from people.

Most free-roaming dogs belong to an ancient canine race known as the pariah dog, which has existed all over Asia and Africa ever since human beings started living in settlements. They are scavengers–that is, they live on garbage created by humans. In India the breed has existed for perhaps 14,000 years or more. In addition to scavenging, they are widely kept as pets by rural and urban slum households.

Part of the urban stray population consists of mongrels or mix-breeds–descended from pure-breed dogs that have been allowed to interbreed with pariahs.

The size of stray dog populations always corresponds to the size and character of the human population of the area. Urban India has two features which create and sustain stray dog populations:

1) Large amounts of exposed garbage, which provide an abundant source of food.

2) A huge population of slum and street-dwellers, who often keep the dogs as free-roaming pets.

Mumbai has over 12 million human residents, of whom over half are slum-dwellers. At least 500 tons of garbage remain uncollected daily. Therefore, conditions are perfect for supporting a particularly large population of stray dogs.
The problem:
The biggest problem created by these dogs is rabies an dog bites.

Rabies can be a fatal disease which can be transmitted to humans. Although all placental mammals can get and transmit rabies, dogs are one the most common carriers. India has the highest number of human rabies deaths in the world (estimated at 35,000 per year).

Dog bites can occur when dogs are trying to mate or fighting among themselves. Pedestrians and other humans in the vicinity may be bitten by the fighting dogs. Females with pups are often protective and may bite people who approach their litter.

The solution:
Killing the dogs doesnt really work. Mass killing is a fruitless, inhumane, ineffective task and certainly didn’t work in other countries too, like in the seven years that Bucharest permitted it – street dog numbers did not decline.

Most states in India have been killing stray dogs for decades. The idea came from ‘developed countries’ without understanding the very different urban conditions in India. India has rubbish dumps and slum areas, which attract strays. Dogs removed are easily replaced.

When a dog is taken away:
· His territory becomes vacant and dogs from around move in to occupy the area.
· Dogs continue to multiply, so the areas are soon filled again.
· Dog fights increase, because each time a new dog enters an area he is attacked by the dogs already in there.
· During dog fights many humans get accidentally bitten.
· Rabies spreads to humans, due to no vaccination programs of strays
· Rabies continues to spread because the dog-catchers are reluctant to pick up a rabid dog – so only healthy dogs get killed.

The effective solution is a methodical Sterilization, vaccination, adoption, education and clean living. Educating and reaching people about sterilization of not only stray dogs, but pets to control the population, educating about living in balance wit the dogs and extending compassion.
ABC Animal birth control scheme set up by the Indian government to control the dog population by sterilization as opposed to the traditional method of killing dogs.
Under this program, stray dogs are surgically neutered and then replaced in their own area. They are also vaccinated against rabies.
The problem of pathetic implementation of this scheme, and government shelters being torture chambers instead for the dogs is a different point that I will write about in another post.

It is a slow process and often, cities go back to culling and create problems for the Animal Welfare orgs. Lets all try to reach out to as many as we can and discuss the solutions. Volunteers make the biggest difference in any effort. Volunteers, who take their community dogs to sterilization and vaccination events, volunteers who help the abused or diseased animals.

Indian Pariah dogs, native dogs, and mixes actually make for great pets because they are native breeds and already accustomed to the land and climate unlike foreign breeds which fail to thrive as easily. Read more about the Indian Pariah dog and native breeds here http://indianpariahdog.blogspot.com/

To Read more about Animal Birth control in India http://abcindia.org.in/

There are always ethical questions about Excessive sterilization and eventual elimination of native breeds. But for right now the above solution is the current solution to help implement because

    There is a big imbalance between the human dog peaceful existence in India. The apathy and lack of compassion will always lead to mass culling getting accepted as a normal thing.
    It is generally accepted that many of the free-roaming dogs in Indian cities and towns(urban) are actually mix-breeds (mongrels), though some certainly look more "mixed" than others. Pure Pariah and native dogs are more common in rural and remote areas where there are no Eurobreeds or other types of dog to interbreed with.
    There are 30 million strays in India. A good sterilization, vaccination implementation will reduce the occurrence and hence fear of rabies. Some additional compassion outreach, adoption and volunteer encouragement will help change the outlook towards strays.

Of course, these are ideal solutions and work best in theory. A practical implementation of the solution is far from being anywhere close to workable and much more painful for the dogs and humans both. Thank you for dropping by. Please do leave your comments and ideas about the post.