The month of July was filled with anti-dog stories in the Goan press. Though the animal welfare organisations including the GSPCA, celebrated World Rabies Day with the usual rounds of free anti rabies vacinations, a rabies scare at Valpoi coupled with dog bites reported at hospitals made it seem like there was a planned effort to malign the street dog, many of whom are not really without owners.

The truth is that we humans are really to blame for the present situation, and it's time we cleaned up our own act instead of laying the blame on the poor creatures who have no protesting or protective voice of their own. The article below appeared in the Gomantak Times last November - it is even more relevant today

"DON'T FEED THE DOGS!"

This sounds like a rather uncaring statement, and definitely not animal-loving, right?

More like something that might be said by someone who can't stand the sight or sound of these creatures, not by one who is closely associated with the government's program for animal birth control through sterilisation. And yet?

A few weeks ago, a popular and skilled Goan vet told me that in a recent discussion with other animal workers they arrived at this conclusion - even if all the stray dogs were to be systematically wiped away, within a year the same number would be back on the roads. She was right.

Why? Because we, yes we, would put them back.

How? By not disciplining or sterilising our home dogs and allowing them to carelessly father or mother puppies with street dogs, which we then discard. By cruelly shunting our pets out on the roads when they get ill or old or mangy, and therefore more trouble than they seem to be worth. By leaving garbage unattended and uncleared for them to feed on. By encouraging stray animals to hover around our homes by feeding them, then shunning any further responsibilities towards them including having them vaccinated against rabies or sterilised.

Nature follows one simple law for procreation and population control - there will be only as many individuals as the available food supply can sustain. In periods of scarcity, only the fittest can survive. The strong feed first, or migrate, while the weak are mercilessly left to die. When we humans intervene, we upset this balance, encourage overpopulation, and then throw our hands up in the air and complain when the situation gets beyond our control. Or shout, "Off with their heads! Kill the dogs!"

Goan society is divided into three distinct groups on the subject of the "stray dog menace". The defenders, the offenders and the pretenders.

The defenders are those who believe in the value of all life, human or otherwise, and are willing to give man's best friend a fair chance. Many of them keep dogs at home, or feed those in the neighbourhood, but the main difference is that they go a step further and take more than a cursory interest in their wellbeing. We recently placed an ad in a Goan newspaper inviting people to attend a workshop on first aid for animals injured on the roads, and were overwhelmed by the response, both quantity and quality. It is from this group of defenders that we hope to generate more support for the animal birth control/anti-rabies program, which requires the wholehearted involvement of animal lovers to help in the identification, catching, and subsequent monitoring of stray dogs that have been sterilised and vaccinated by us.

The offenders are those who want the dogs eliminated, period. Some kick and stone them, others secretly poison them, still others publicly protest the ban on municipal killing. Why? Because "they howl at night, they bite, they spread rabies, they have ticks, they are horrible mangy maggot ridden creatures that should not be allowed to cross our hallowed paths".

Does this mean that we should spend our scarce funds in catching and killing them, when birth control is a much cheaper and longer lasting solution recommended by the WHO because it has worked in other countries? Would the offenders recommend the genocide of all HIV carriers, lepers, pedophiles, drunken drivers, because they pose a potential threat? Man's responsibility as arguably the most intelligent and compassionate of all species is to find ways to identify and succour the real victims, which are often the perpetrators themselves. To provide solutions whether the immediate beneficiary is man or beast, because ultimately the end benefit is to society as a whole. Centuries of war and holocaust have taught us that outright killing is never an answer, especially when alternative humane approaches are possible and effective.

But by far the people who are most harmful to this cause are "the pretenders". The ones with double standards, who claim to love animals as long as they look good and have a pedigree. Irresponsible pet owners who will let their Dobermann "have it off" with the neighbourhood stray, and then get the servant to drown the puppies, or worse, send them off to an animal shelter claiming that they "found" the poor things in the garbage dump! People who get in a pup for the kids at Christmas time, then leave it to fend for itself when they go away on holiday. People who feed the neighbourhood strays because they want their homes to be guarded, then let them wander about and injure themselves in territorial dog fights during the mating season, because their good deeds stop at a loaf of bread. And of course there are also those who mean well, but unfortunately don't realise the full implication of their actions.

It is this group that is the most widespread. At least the defenders and the offenders have a point of view, and match thought with action. But the pretenders could do society and stray dogs a much bigger service by actually ignoring the latter completely, and leave the animal organisations to do their jobs, and the animals to find alternative means of survival.

To all the readers of this piece, who may have something of the pretender inside, let me say once more,

"Don't feed the dogs, if that's all your going to do. Don't take away their ability to fend for themselves and then ignore them. Don't turn them into beggars first, and a continuing nuisance later. Let them live or die on their own, with dignity, and with the help of the Creator, thank you very much."