Dog Days

Almost everyday, I receive mails about people seeking homes for dogs. Either they are leaving town, or their flat associations are causing trouble or many take in a dog and realise only then that they cannot afford the dog or they are clueless about how to train the dog. There are owners who whine and whinge about how the puppy is not toilet trained, or is chewing everything or is jumping friskily around.
Many owners even callously abandon their pets on the road. Are these people humans or beasts? I would call them the latter. After a dog has been used to getting fed at home how is it supposed to scavenge on the road for food? And how does a homegrown dog protect itself against attacks by stray dogs?
Irresponsible ownership is a problem world over. Someone brings in a dog because their kid wants one. Kid doesn’t look after the dog; dog is abandoned. Or the dog works out too expensive; throw it out.
On the other hand you have the greedy callous ones who think dogs are status symbols or want to breed them to make money. These will buy pedigreed dogs for the sole purpose of showing off or for breeding. While many do look after their pooches well, there are others who chain them all day and never give them any love or affection. Dogs are like humans; they need plenty of love. And they give us unconditional love. The worst thing we can do is to deprive them of hugs and cuddles.
Then we have owners who don’t train their dogs and when these badly trained dogs bite neighbours or attack people or other dogs on the road, they give the canine community a bad name. Very often, if a dog in an apartment block bites someone, then all dogs in that apartment block come under the scanner and soon a resolution is passed – no dogs in the building. Owners must understand that they are wholly responsible for their dog’s behaviour. If they are incapable of training, handling or controlling their dogs, they shouldn’t have got them in the first place.
It is terribly sad that so many people are abandoning dogs. It doesn’t speak very well about us…the human race. Where is our humanity? No human being will ever give us the love that a dog will. Please let’s not throw dogs onto the road for them to get maimed, injured or killed. Let’s put a stop to it now.