Dealing with Srinagar’s Stray Dogs not People

Here is a video report about the efforts to catch and deal with the estimated 91,000 stray dogs in the city of Srinagar in Indian Kashmir. The emphasis is on the actual catching process with nets plus the residents’ wish to get rid of the dogs. The video focuses a lot on the problem of aggressive dogs and fear in the local people but, to my eye, it actually shows more about aggressive people and fearful dogs. I believe that the behaviour of a population of stray dogs usually reflects how they are treated by the human population. Aggressive people will most likely produce fearful, aggressive dogs.

As typical with similar reports (and apparently the management strategy itself), the underlying causes behind the dog problem are not addressed. Most of the dogs shown are clearly not the native pariah dogs so where did they come from and why have they increased to this number? I don’t know enough about the situation there to be sure but suspect pet abandonment and poor waste management to be the other significant causes behind the problem together with a prevailing hostile attitude towards the dogs. As ever, this suggests that the real problem is with human behaviour more than dog behaviour.

The other aspect that suggests they are not on the right track for a lasting solution is the clearly widespread attitude that the responsibility for the problem lies with the authorities not the community. It seems to me that human communities that have “delegated” their social responsibility to a higher bureaucratic representative are much more likely to have a problem with stray dogs.

Learn more about the lives and issue of unowned dogs in my e-book ”A Stray View” available from Bangkok Books (readable as .pdf on any computer)