The Hindu : Life & Style / Leisure : Animal Birth Control Camp on Sunday

The Hindu : Life & Style / Leisure : Animal Birth Control Camp on Sunday.

Leaving pet dog helpless-Adopt betterways of abandoning your pet

by Dr. Surbhi Tyagi (PhD scholar, Surgery)–articlesbase.com (August 8, 2010)

Are these questions coming to your mind?:

What is pet dog abandonment? Why people abandon their pet dog? What are the consequences of abandoning a pet dog? I have no option other than to leave abandon my pet, is there any better alternatives or ways of doing it? Is there anyone who can adopt my pet or anyone who can help in this process? Is there any animal welfare societies, organizations associated with dog sheltering, dog adoption?

Abandonment means to leave something with no intention of returning. Dog abandonment means to leave your pet forever. Dogs are taken to a far place and left there so they cannot return back. Many a times they are left in some of the forests/jungles or to a roadside and left to the mercy of god where they have no food or shelter. These abandoned pet dogs have different way of living and cannot cope up with the harsh situations of the forest and cannot compete with the other animals. Moreover animals have the habit to make and live in their territory, so they don’t allow the newly abandoned dog to share their place leading to fight which might result into severe injuries and sometimes the dog may even die. Other times the dogs may run and come to some unknown surroundings or may get hit by some vehicle and met with some automobile accident. They may also eat something poisonous when hungry as their natural instincts are not so developed because of living in human vicinity and may even die. Some of the dogs survive and add to the so called stray dog population. The population of stray dogs in India is increasing alarmingly due to uncontrolled reproduction among stray dog population adding to which is increasing trend of dog abandonment. So animal birth control (ABC) programme has been instituted where females are spayed and males are castrated to curb over population of stray dogs. Dog owners should at least look for a new home or shelter for their pets so that they can at least live safely.

Reasons behind it:

• People give a variety of reasons to abandon their dogs some of them are like
• The most common of them at least in India is being the economic reasons as people say they have poor living standards and cannot feed the dogs.
• A member of the family may die and others don’t want to keep the dog.
• Owners may shift from one place to the other and may not take pets with them because of long distance, lack of means of transport of the pet or they simply don’t want to.
• A dog may get some health problem and unable to meet expenses associated, the owner think to abandon their dog or may even think to kill/ euthanize the dog.
• Some owners complain of allergies with dog hair, problem with excessive barking and even some owners complain of hyperactivity which causes problem in living societies.
• Sometimes dog breeders abandon such puppies which do not meet the breed standards thereby increasing breeders expense in rearing those pups which have no or very less sale value.
• A pet purchased on the spur of the moment or as a gift for another person. Often the owner discovers that caring for the pet is much more work than expected, or requires more space or exercise than they are prepared to give.
• Pet leaves home or cannot find its way back, and carries no identification tags or microchip. The owner does not succeed in finding it (or makes no attempt to do so).
• People leave the country; quarantine laws in some countries can be traumatic to pets and owners, so to avoid the stress, the pet is surrendered to an animal shelter.

Consequences of dog abandonment: The dogs are very emotionally attached to their owners and the family they are living in; to abandon them means to separate them of their family. Just think how a child will feel if left alone in unknown surroundings without food water and shelter! The very first thing about dog abandonment is that it is unethical and against the law. It leads to increase in stray population of dogs. Municipality of our place will just collect the stray dogs and further handle the issue. It is illegal even for a municipality to round up stray dogs and abandon them outside city limits, as it places them in circumstances likely to cause their death from starvation and thirst. Therefore, you should not do this as it can be challenged in the court.
Previously, municipalities would kill these animals (mainly dogs) cruelly by electrocution, starvation and burying alive. After 1992, it became illegal for municipalities to kill stray dogs. The High Courts of Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Mumbai and several other states have specifically forbidden the killing of stray dogs and have directed the municipality to introduce a sensible sterilisation programme instead.

Alternatives/ Better Ways: If you are thinking of separating your pet from you then there are better ways also. You should look for a shelter for your dog. There are a number of ways to do this if one wants. One of the methods is to look for another house for your pet among your neighbor or relatives. Other way is to send the pet to some shelter house where they can be kept. There are shelter houses for dogs which are helping for the dog adoption to the people who want to get a pet. So next time you are looking to bring a pet to your home, please go to a nearby shelter house and adopt a dog instead of buying the new one so that these speechless creatures can get a home to live and bond with. It has several advantages that now you don’t have to spend the money to buy a new pet. The other thing is that now you can get a well trained dog. Above all you will get a mental satisfaction for giving home to a pet which no money can buy.

Societies/Organizations- A Helping Hand: There are many societies and NGOs operating in India and abroad which can help you http://weforanimals.com Organizations like the BlueCross society http://bluecrossofindia.org are working throughout India to help give shelter to the animals and help in dog adoption. Pablo’s Dog Adoption Foundation India is a group that brings together all animals, mongrel lovers, adopters worldwide http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21048859101 . There are no kill societies which will keep the dog but not kill them unlike the other shelter houses which were working earlier where dogs were euthanized after a particular period of time.

Problems Associated With Adoption:

• Lack of awareness is the main reason. Many people don’t know if there is any such procedure where you can send your pet to shelter house and look for another home by dog adoption.
• Lack of responsibility is the other main problem associated. Unless you feel your responsibility for these lovely creatures, you cannot do anything but to abandon them. One should at least think once before doing this cruelty!
• Many people have this query if the adopted dog will go well in their house. Dogs are very intelligent and are very fast learners. If taught with love, they will follow you sincerely. Moreover, the shelter houses should observe a pet/dog/animal for at least a week and tell the prospective owner about behavior of the particular animal.

Benefits behind Sheltering and adoption: First of all and most importantly it will control the population of stray dogs. Secondly the cruelty against the dogs and a possible risk to a life can be averted. You can save a life and get a chance to give home to a homeless dog, also called the Man’s best friend. You can get the dog for free and don’t have to purchase it. You can get well trained and grown up dogs and can escape with the initial training required when a small pup is first of all brought to the home.

Raise a Voice: It is high time to stop this malpractice of dog abandonment among people of India as it is inhumane, cruel and leads to increase in stray dog population. The better measures like dog sheltering, dog adoption, ABC progamme should be instituted all over India. Apart from that, some awareness campaigns are required so that more people know about this and stop this. Be a part of it and try to save a life!

Innovation India – About the Author:

Dr. Surbhi Tyagi (PhD scholar, Surgery)

Technical Advisor

Awareness Campaign Cell

Innovation India

submitinnovation@gmail.com

http://innovationindia.webs.com

Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/countries-with-most-pet-dog-population.html

http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/countries-with-most-pet-dog-population.html.

Dog Population Control: Animal Welfare Issues from a Developing Country’s Perspective –

by S. Abdul Rahman (2009)

Leaving pet dog helpless-Adopt betterways of abandoning your pet

Leaving pet dog helpless-Adopt betterways of abandoning your pet.

Healthy and Safe Street Dogs: its as easy as ‘ABC’… (via Footprint)

Each bitch is capable of giving birth twice an year to a total of 8-10 pups or may be even more.. If you think, applying some common sense-Street Dogs can't use Condoms or Oral Contraceptive Pills! ….therefore it is important that humans help them out over here. Thus, for a … Read More

via Footprint

Facebook Group: Street Dog Lovers

Please encourage your friends to join this Facebook group.

Admins: 

Jessica Cooper (creator)

Officers: Kartik Chopra–Street Dog Lover and proud Owner of a street dog!

Name: Street Dog Lovers

Category: Common Interest – Pets & Animals

Description: An individual effort to bring like minded people together for one common goal – Be Nice to Street Dogs!! Being nice to them, talking to them for 5 minutes, feeding them sometimes, stopping people from hitting them,etc. has its own advantages and can bring you some unconditional love. They may not look well groomed like our pretty pets sitting at home but, remember they are animals and can not speak and they have feelings too! If you would like to visit my 3 street dogs and 1 street puppy (5 months old) in New Delhi, please get in touch at streetdoglover@gmail.com. Or, just invite me to visit your dogs! I would also really appreciate if you could invite your friends to join this group to create awareness. Thank You!

News:

1. January 25, 2009: The stray puppy which was being looked after by a lot of people including me, expired today, early in the morning. It was 7-8 months old and was loved by everyone. I had started this group after she was born and because I fell in love with the puppy. She was the cutest dog I had come across. A lot of people are upset over this tragic loss. She unfortunately came under cars on several occasions but, was saved each time. People gave her food and took care of it. This time she just caught a cold and had high fever. She could never recuperate from her illness and died…I will miss her alot. You will always live in our hearts..forever.. Luv u Poochie…Jessica. Varshika Munjal (Member of the Group) says: Stray dogs are just lieka r labradors , cocher spaneils , pugs , etc , etc ..they feel the same hunger , they run from pillar to post just 2 find one tiny peice of sumthin edible ..they starve all day ..freeze to death on empty stomach in the winters …in the summers , they run around looking for one droplet of water while their stomachs continue to rumble with hunger …. preganant bitches have the hardest time of all , they have no energy , no food and yet they have to feed their litter ..worst of all , strays get hit on the road and limp around searchin for food in pain all their lives ..so if u really love dogs , u must have empathy 4 the ones on the street ..they need a home first !! ..pls start feeding the strays near ur houses , get them vaccinated and sterilized and take care of them .they even say that looking after stray dogs brings good luk …

Jairam Bats for Laila

by Rohit Bansal [rohitbansal@post.harvard.edu] of India Strategy Group—Governance Now (2010)

On April 26, our lives changed for ever. Laila, a delectable ball of fawn, knocked at our doors in the custody of two sleazy dog breeders. They had contacted my wife over the internet and had showed up at our home just a few hours later, sure to tempt her into making a door-step purchase. Instead of a male Boxer she wanted, they had Laila, and two other frightened and tired puppies, dangerously perched on a scooter and packed into a dirty box of plastic. One was a St Bernard, who looked over three months old. So you can imagine how he wasn’t exactly small. The other was a cream Labrador, so tiny and so cruelly weaned away, that he couldn’t open his eyes for the next one hour he was at our home. We doubt if our efforts to give him water and airconditioning helped him survive the journey back to his hell hole in Narela. As I write this looking at Laila, sleeping without a care, I know she could stay back more because we couldn’t have seen all three puppies go back the way they’d been brought. And we still feel very guilty of letting the tiny Labrador go. He couldn’t be more that three weeks old and the sleazy vendors had no business playing with his life, carting him around in the heat of Delhi. As may well be expected, they haven’t reverted with Laila’s papers from her kennel club purportedly in Punjab! I therefore compliment Jairam Ramesh for piloting an urbane and humane set of Dog Breeding, Marketing and Sales Rules, 2010 [http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/Draft-Dog-Breeding-Rules-2010.pdf]. I wonder why, save for a piece in T he Pioneer, what is perhaps among the most humane pieces of draft legislation in the works, doesn’t yet throw up on google a single news report in a mainstream publication. A similar fate has befallen upon on Jairam’s Aquarium Fish breeding Marketing Rules, 2010. [http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/Draft-Aquarium-Fish-Breeding-Rules-2010.pdf] Laila’s relative fortune is apparent from the preamble circulated by the ministry of environment and forests: “Breeding, marketing and sale of dogs has come to stay as a high-level commercial venture in India, involving thousands of breeders and pet shops in the multi-crore industry. Parallely, an enormous need has emerged for lakhs of pups of specific breeds or half breeds from pet owners, most of whom are ignorant of the basics of healthcare and management of dogs. This has resulted in unscrupulous breeders and pet shops selling pups that are poor in breed standards, unhealthy and diseased resulting in heavy mortality or weaklings that are ill-treated. This unethical trade also has high zoonotic potential which is a public health concern. Besides all this there is an immediate need to discipline the process of dog breeding, marketing and sale addressing animal welfare concerns.” The objectives of the draft legislation are: a. to regulate the welfare of dogs kept in breeding premises/establishments; b. to extend powers of inspection of such premises/establishments; c. to establish records kept at such premises/establishments; and for connected purposes; d. to regulate the sale of dogs and pups. It is envisaged therefore that breeders will obtain the (annual) license from the Local Civic Authority and Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) in accordance with the provisions of these rules. This license will have to be displayed and all licensed pet shops would need to source/procure pups from licensed breeders only with proof of records. All the licensed premises/establishments can be inspected by persons (Inspectors) authorized by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI). The Kennel Club in India and other registered kennel clubs will have to insist that the breeding kennels are licensed by local civic authority and by AWBI, while they seek puppy registration certificates. The licensing procedure is sensible enough. Only an individual above 18 can apply (one of the two breeders who came to our home was a minor). They may now have to ensure that the dogs are at all times kept in kennels/ accommodation suitable in all respects of construction, size, number of dogs, exercising facilities, proper temperature, lighting, ventilation and cleanliness. Importantly, no breeder will be allowed to breed more than one kind of dog. Multi-species breeding will disqualify the breeder. Also, the breeder will be expected to be knowledgeable about reproduction, nutrition, wellness and care, early behavioral development, and breeding ethics. Only normal healthy, mature bitches after have reached their 18th month and before they turn 8 years old will be bred (the market practice is to start farming puppies from the 8-9th month and then go on for ever). No bitch will be subjected to produce litters in two (2) consecutive breeding seasons or give birth to puppies before the end of the period of twelve months beginning with the day on which they last give birth to puppies. That means only one litter in one year. Besides, no bitch will be subjected to giving birth to more than four litters during her lifespan. Similarly, no stud dog will be bred unless he is a healthy, mature dog after he has reached his 18 th month. As demanded by animal experts, only out breeding: the mating of dogs, which are not at all related to one another; and line breeding: the mating between slightly related dogs, have been allowed. In breeding, defined as breeding between relatives of 2nd to 4th grade in straight or side line within the first four generations e.g. uncle to niece, nephew to aunt, cousin to cousin, grandparents to grandchildren have been forbidden. So is incest breeding: the mating between parents and children or between brother and sister, i.e. 1st grade relatives. Incest breeding as well as continued inbreeding and line breeding is deemed risky, since it increases the danger of hereditary diseases. Breeders are expected to furnish the age proof of their breeding bitches and keep a full detail of what the dog or bitch has previously produced and details of the litter along with up-to-date record of vaccination boosters and de-worming prior to mating. For the vanity oriented, the news is that there will be no tail docking, ear cropping or any kind of mutilating of the puppy. Any change of appearance by artificial means will be forbidden. Unlike Laila’s owners, if Jairam’s draft rules get ratified, the buyer will have the right to written details on feedings, dates of inoculations and de-worming of the puppy and the name and address of the licensed veterinarian who has examined the puppy. Prospective buyers will even have to demonstrate their potential to properly take care for the breed, especially if it is a large one; training, grooming, socializing, veterinary expenses, equipments needs, spatial needs, and exercise. The breeder will have to keep track of all puppies produced and sold, whether pet or for show, and to know how the breeding program is working. The buyer will be liable to furnish information with regard to health problems, physical abnormalities or death of the animal on yearly basis (All conditions of sale agreed upon by the buyer and breeder will have to be in writing). Similarly, puppies will not be displayed in public places for purpose of immediate sale and the breeder will not breed a litter unless he has pre-screened candidates on a waiting list for the puppies. Dogs will not be sold without first being sterilized, unless they are being sold to another licensed breeding establishment and mercifully they cannot be sold to be used in experiments. Euthanasia of animals will have to be accomplished by a method approved by the Veterinary Council of India/AWBI. Unlike Laila who was dumped around in a plastic box, detailed guidelines have been drafted on transportation conditions, housing facilities, flooring, storage and lighting conditions. As a pure example of detailing (and ambition, given our state of governance!), “the ambient temperature in the sheltered part of the facility must not fall below fifty degrees Fahrenheit (50 F) or ten degrees Celsius (10 C) for animals not acclimated to lower temperatures, for those breeds that cannot tolerate lower temperatures without stress and discomfort (such as short-haired breeds) and for sick, aged, young or infirm animals, except as approved by the attending veterinarian. Dry bedding, solid resting boards, or other methods of conserving body heat must be provided when temperatures are below fifty degrees Fahrenheit (50 F) or ten degrees Celsius (10 C). The ambient temperature must not fall below forty-five degrees Fahrenheit (45 F) or seven point two degrees Celsius (7.2 C) for more than four (4) consecutive hours when animals are present, and must not rise above eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit (85 F) or twenty-nine point five degrees Celsius (29.5 C) for more than four (4) consecutive hours when animals are present.” Phew! The one pertaining to socialising says: “The opportunity for exercise may be provided in a number of ways, such as, (i) Group housing in cages, pens or runs that provide at least one hundred percent (100%) of the required space for each dog if maintained separately under theminimum floor space requirements of this rule; (ii) Providing access to a run or open area at the frequency and duration prescribed by the attending veterinarian; (iii) Adequate exercise either in a fenced area or on a leash with a person on the other end; (iv) Exercising for at least 30 minutes twice per day; (v) Socializing with people at suitable intervals equaling at least three (3) hours per day for adult and five (5) hours per day for puppies less than four months of age.” Support to these drafts can be signed at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/241/753/237.