Dealing with Dogs?

blackbird

Thanks Brownboy, that's really useful info.

So on average your chances of being bitten by a dog in India in a given year is around 1 in 300, and if you do get bitten there is a 1 in 100 chance of dying of rabies. (Based on population of 1 billion.)

Now I feel silly for being so paranoid about rabies when there are stray dogs around. I will concentrate on being paranoid about mosquitos in future. And guarding my ears against cockroaches!

brownboy66

Actually it could be less as your chances of getting bitten by a dog would probably depend on the number of dogs in India (as opposed to the number of people around you), and who knows what the dog population is? Plus - who can trust stats anyway. I think its Mairangi Vice who has the signature "statistics can prove anything - 9 out of 10 people know it".

But yes - mosquitos and cockroach - very bad. Even worse - check out this sucker!

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puppydogben

Do you know this from personal experience?

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Prashant.M

Guys, aren't you being a little too harsh?

Stray dogs are indeed dangerous to children and at night to pedestrians and two wheeler riders, not to mention those who exercise early in the morning. Somehow they become very territorial at night. I am not sure but IIRC two or three children were killed in Bangalore by stray dogs in the past year. They multiply because of the amount of food available in the form of garbage. Unless that problem is solved, the stray dog problem will continue.

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IVAN

Anyone actually tried those in a "situation"?

I wonder if it would be painful for me too though, since I cannot stand the high frequency sounds produced by most TVs and many monitors...

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Nick-H

Yes, there is a problem. Yes, children have been killed by street dogs, and, yes, there are places where the street dog population is out of control and should be dealt with.

Are we being too harsh? No. fly2raven speaks of one event where she has been threatened. Others speak of years, decades even, of having no hassle whatsoever with street dogs. I've been barked/growled at a couple of times, and snapped at once by a dog I unwittingly cornered --- neither of us had space to back off.

And then she comes out with stuff likeAnybody every heard of such an incident? Well, the papers are hardly packed with tales (or should that be tails?).

Nor is the day-to-day life of many a Chennai dog that bad. Probably no worse than a London feral cat. certainly a shorter life span than a house-pet, but at least they have a life, are often befriended by nightwatchmen and security staff, and don't seem to do too badly. Yes, I've seen some in a bad way, but I've seen lots of people in bad ways too.

fly2raven --- obviously I am not familiar with the street where you live, but neither in the street I used to live in, nor the much-less-posh area that I now live in, is it necessary to feel any danger from dogs for most of the day/evening. There's more risk of having one's toes trodden on by a cow!

I'd walk around the block to avoid a pack of them at 2.00am, anywhere --- that I will admit.

As to No Indian street dog is bred or trained for ferocity. Unfortunately the same can not be said for pets.

fly2raven

I think we are straying off topic but...

Nick - isn't one event enough? If I had two or three such events happen to me would I have an opinion that didn't warrant such sarcasm as "I don't think the rest of your post was worth commenting on"

Since living in Bangalore there has been at least one known instance to me that a child was killed by a pack of dogs..it was in the news...they actually had the family describe how the child was dragged away while sitting alone...and if not for food then for what?

I am sure that no indian street dog is bred or trained for cruelty but the majority of these dogs are kicked or slapped and treated badly by humans on a daily basis...would that not 'train' them in some way...I think it would.

I haven't ever been to Chennai...so I can't comment on the dogs there but the only dogs that I have seen here that happen to be doing OK are the ones that are lucky enough to live next to a chicken or pork stall...

"But at least they have a life"...hmmm...ok...I see your point...I will let the next starving one that I see tomorrow know that it should just be happy to be alive..

lotus blossom

yes, i think so. i'd say, let's try and keep this civil but as one of my favorite activists says, it's this so-called civilization that is causing all the problems. so, how about more respectful. less growling and sneering.

Enroutre to Bangalore in April i picked up a copy of India Today while boarding the train; in it was an article on the street dogs of Bangalore and a photo of protestors (mostly western) who were against the way the incidents of dog violence was being dealt with -- shown in another picture, was a dog being dumped into a large truck, on this way to the death chambers. i agree with the protestors, that's a poor way to deal with the problem.

i didn't encounter any dog problems during the few weeks that i was there, but it had me more on the alert after reading that article. i can think of nothing more horrific than a child being mauled by a dog. it happened here in the states not so long ago. we hear accounts of it here more frequently than one would think. sometimes, to the complete bafflement of the family who could not understand why their pet went bonkers and became a murderer. especially to a family member.

and while i never had an incident with the street dogs in varanasi during my six weeks there, i saw many of them that had the worst mange i've ever seen. it was heartbreaking. they's spend their days itching and oozing. i met a dutch woman who works with the street dogs there, six months of every year. she says that the holy city does not allow sterlization of the animals, so they breed like mad there.


i took food to three young pups close to my room in varanasi; they would cower in fear everytime i came within a few yards of them, so already, cute and cuddly as they were, they were being abused. so, indeed, they are trained, sadly, by human ignorance.

this sort of life, is overrated, i think. what being wants to be alive only to live in such awful conditions? some may argue, perhaps it's their karma, maybe it's to understand suffering, but maybe it's so that we, the higher brained ones, develop more compassion and caring to help alleviate their suffering.

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lotus blossom

if there is karma than perhaps the best punishment for NFL superstar Michael Vick would be for the dogs he has tormented to give him a taste of is own medicine, beyond the playing cards...

Take some trading cards picturing a disgraced NFL superstar. Add some dog slobber and teethmarks. What do you get? The most valuable Michael Vick cards — by far — on eBay, that's what.

Collector Rochelle Steffen of Cape Girardeau, Mo., gave every Vick card she owned to her dogs and let them go to town on the images of the Atlanta Falcons quarterback who is scheduled to plead guilty to a federal dogfighting charge Monday.

Once Monte, her 6-year-old Weimaraner, and Roxie, her Great Dane puppy, were done worrying them, nearly two dozen $1-$10 cards were crumpled, crimped, chewed, torn and generally in a sorry state. Some even had corners missing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070824/...0sR4WdwZLNaMYA

Playing cards mauled by Lilli have 20 bidders already. proceeds from the sale will go to the humane society.

PeakXV

chainmail leggings, stilts, by wearing no offensive deodorants, after shaves, perfumes, there's strength in numbers - especially after dark, refrain from tail pulling no matter how advanced your habit may be ..... lighten up folks it's Friday!!!!

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

vargoje3

Feral dogs cause a lot more problems in India than just passing on rabies or biting people. As i was studying in India i got a chance to visit Point Calimere and do some research on thier migratory bird pop and black buck populations. While i was there for just one week, 4 black buck were killed by feral dogs including a pregnant female. I have pictures of the black buck and the dogs that killed her if anyone is interested. You'll never read about this however because its a problem the game wardens and park people don't want published. In order to keep my photos i had to sign an agreement i wouldnt publish them. I was also present when the dogs were killed when they returned back into the park from local villages as we had to identify the dogs that did the killings. These dogs didn't kill for food they killed for fun and simply left the black buck carcass's to rot in the sun. Feral dogs are a menace in India not only to people but also to local wildlife.

PeakXV

Dogs will run deer everywhere in the world & house cats kill millions of song birds each year for fun ..... it's just in their instinct.

shantidaze

I suggest pretending to pick up a stone sends most dogs away - don't actually have to throw one; my husband suggests a good kick...

Last time we were in India we read about a child being killed by dogs in Bangalore - and we followed the polemic in the local papers concerning controlling the dog population. The views of each side were pretty much the same as the opposing views aired above.
I don't really sit on one side of the fence or the other... but while staying on a certain beach I have seen many foreign animal lovers adopt cute little puppies in the nearby town, only to bugger off a few weeks later, leaving yet another stray on the beach. Local people told me that at the end of the season, when there are fewer and fewer tourists to feed the strays, the dogs attack local people and end up eating each other.
So, I suppose my point is that foreigners visiting India should think about the consequences for local people when they adopt stray dogs.

Nick-H

This is an emotive subject, and we have already had a thread spawned by the Bangalore dog slaughter which became too heated to keep open.

vargoje3, I guess it may depend where you are, but this is not a great secret here, and yes, it does happen, and does get reported in the local press.

Just like the begging, it is not a problem (where it is a problem) that is not going to go away because of us guys shouting at each other about it.

The dogs are part of the street scene, like it or not.

birds

There is no denying that this is a horrific case but as this happened in the city it is highly unlikely that it happened because of food.

In Indian cities dogs are normally not extremely hungry (still hungry though) due to the enormous amounts of garbage available. They are more likely to scavenge for food than to hunt for food as hunting consumes lots of energy and requires skill even with the underlaying instinct/talent.
With feral dogs in the country site it can be very different as they learn to become skillful hunters and they can indeed be a threat to wildlife

The Bangalore incident can be explained by the fact that SOME dogs, strays as well as pets, see anything small that moves fast,like cats, rats, chickens and small children, as something that is fun to chase. If the child starts running the dog will get even more excited and will double its efforts to catch it. After whatever it chases is caught the dog will continue to bite until it stops moving, at which point the dog tends to lose interest and leaves.

While this is naturally horrible if it happens to children, it should not follow that because a few dogs are like this therefore all dogs should be killed. If we would apply the same logic to people Bangalore would soon be empty as it has one of the highest murder rates in the country.