Feeding stray dogs – often considered a divine act by many in India – may prove to be harmful if they are fed in an irregular manner, say animal welfare experts.

Vandana Anchalia, Founder and Director at Kannan Animal Welfare, a non-profit organisation involved in rescue and rehabilitation of dogs, says, while dogs that go unfed are generally more aggressive towards humans, feeding dogs outside someone’s house or at a common area could make them territorial, causing problems for other people.

Recently, a family of three claimed they were gheraoed in a car for over three hours by a group of angry residents in Gurugram, for feeding stray canines.

Why Should You Care?

A person may like, dislike, or be completely neutral on the subject of feeding stray dogs, but what cannot be overlooked is the safety is one’s own self and our family members. Yes, us feeding stray dogs, depending on how, when, and where they are fed, can affect one’s chances of being bitten.

Also worrying, are the increasing instances of people targeting individuals who feed stray dogs in their neighbourhood.There are several news reports about such attacks from across India.

How Should Street Dogs Be Fed?

Anchalia says, “It is very natural for people to feed dogs, but just feeding them does not make one a responsible animal lover.” She stresses that the rules issued by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), about feeding strays only at designated spots, should be followed. These rules were framed following a Delhi High Court judgment on the matter in 2011.

A key AWBI rule says that stray dogs must only be fed in places that are not frequented by people. In doing so, those who feed the dogs can help limit the interaction between canines and other people.

       AWBI rules also stress that dogs should not be herded into one place for the purpose of feeding, as they are deeply territorial by nature, and would end up fighting and biting each other to get the food. This could endanger the nearby humans as well.

    How To Control Cases of Dog Bites?

       According to the Animal Birth Control Rules (Dog) 2005, every local authority is expected to form a monitoring committee comprising the Commissioner, health department officials, a vet, animal welfare departments and others.

     This committee is responsible for the planning and management of dog control programmes, which include “catching, transportation, sheltering, sterilisation, vaccination,  treatment, and release of sterilised vaccinated or treated dogs”.

      However, Anjali Gopalan, founder of All Creatures Great and Small, says that in places like Gurugram, “There’s no effective animal birth control programme. In cases where the programmes were implemented, levels of corruption were high, rendering the programme ineffective.”

Need for Sterilisation

Khushboo Gupta, Chief Advocacy Officer at PETA India says that under an effective sterilisation programme, stray dogs are surgically neutered, vaccinated against rabies, and then placed back in their own area.

“Since territories are not left vacant, new dogs cannot enter. Mating and breeding also ceases. 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,” she says.

Towards a Solution

However, a rescue and rehabilitation worker in the National Capital Region pointed out that even though municipal corporations have teams in place, dog lovers often hesitate to get them sterilised at government facilities that are often considered ‘unhygienic’.

Moreover, at the moment, most dogs are sterilised only when residents complain about the number of dogs or when cases of a rabid dog is reported.

Although, in such cases the dogs are picked up, screened, and released in the same area following sterilisation, this entire process is limited to a specific number of dogs.

Some suggested solutions:

• Gopalan says that the first step is to stop cruelty towards animals, since dogs are most often at the receiving end of human cruelty. Once dogs are cared for, they would naturally be less violent towards humans.
• But this may still not eliminate the possibility of rabid dogs, for which a much more broad-based vaccination and sterilisation programme needs to be put into place.

(The Quint is available on Telegram. For handpicked stories every day, subscribe to us on Telegram)

Link to original article: https://www.thequint.com/news/environment/rules-for-feeding-stray-dogs-in-societies#read-more