[digitalnirvana]

Originally Posted by whitewing

The question is - as a society, do we have enough empathy to get involved (either via our own efforts or with our purse strings). This is no different from people helping out others humans via philanthropy or volunteering.

The answer is difficult but for India I'd say it is no. However hard it is for animal lovers to stomach this, but our country is downtrodden with poverty and millions of people homeless, on the streets and a pay cheque away from starvation.

With such less value placed on human lives, how can we prioritise companion animal lives? Especially when livestock animals spend their lives in cruelty and painful death?

There is no one single charity or philanthropist that is willing to take care of animal welfare in our country in a widespread structured way. In fact it would be absolutely an image suicide to prioritise animals over humans.
Which is exactly why you see people upset over "animal lovers" and a certain well known advocate of animal rights.

When there is so much human suffering, is it even moral to talk about animal suffering?

The answer is thus murky and unpleasant.
I don't see a top down solution till the time India progresses towards better urbanisation standards and first world city living life. Perhaps around 2050 ish. Then and only then strays will be considered as a topic to be solved with a proper structure.

Till then it would remain grassroots, sporadic and individual / NGO efforts like today. Of course which is better than nothing but not at a scale that can impact the outcome meaningfully. India is too vast to do this at a micro / hyperlocal level. City or district wide planning is a must, but that won't happen till we become a developed nation.

Its a deep debate but for another day another thread.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by AnAntinspired

There is nothing like a bad dog. Only a bad human experience that triggers their defense which is sometimes offence. Iv also been bitten by stray dogs when cycling, but have always realised the action caused the reaction. Now, with the right approaches adopted, I end up getting a wagging tail from every stray dog pack that chases me initially.

It's a pity animal interaction is not part of our skewed educational system nor part of home environment learning from parent to child.

+1 to this. I realize I NEVER have had any issue with strays. Yes, hundreds of strays have run after me when I cycle across cities; but that's the easiest of situation to handle.

In all the scenarios I have observed / known of strays biting (or even snarling at) a human being, it's the human that caused a situation that triggered the dog's defensive tactics - be it biting or growling or barking at the human (even a child). In the case of a child, the cases I know - the parent had been caught napping or even enabling the interaction till it became a problem, right in front of them.

Is the US system (of capturing strays) the right solution? Maybe in that developed nation, it's a good solution. But then there are a lot of US systems that should be replicated 100%; for instance enforcing traffic rules. But it comes down to what works in a developing nation; and that's complicated.

To me, strays needs to be neutered / spayed more regularly. That's the area I would expect the governments (local & central) to fund / invest more. Killing / culling is never the solution.

[Sebring]

Well put. Since I have few dogs, the street dogs constantly get their scent and follow me around. The problem will be if I panic and start running, then they could get excited.

Originally Posted by AnAntinspired

Any dog, like all animals, reacts for survival. If its survival is threatened

[GTO]

Mod Note: Topic discussed enough, thread has been closed by Samurai.