Reducing Rabies in Vietnam or Not?

The Vietnamese Government is introducing a project to try to reduce the risk of rabies in the country through much stricter dog control. Although I agree, of course, with their effort to reduce this fatal disease, the wording in the report I read (here) implies that all dogs must have an owner and that any stray or street dog should be caught by local authorities and euthanized if not claimed within 72 hours.

Unless all unowned dogs are removed, which is very unlikely to be achieved, then removing some from the streets may actually make the situation worse by encouraging movement within the wider dog population as dogs from elsewhere wander into dog-free areas. In this way the rabies virus itself becomes more mobile. A far better tactic is vaccination, which also happens to leave the traditional unowned village dog lifestyle intact.

When it comes to stray dogs there is far too much over-reaction and far too many misdirected, overly ambitious showcase projects.

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)

Indian Stray Dogs at University

Seeing stray dogs as individuals with personalities makes a real difference to their relationship to the people around them. The Hindu newspaper has published a story (here) about how the stray dogs at Jadavpur University in India are part of the community to the extent that some even attend lectures (more often than some students apparently). They also have their own Facebook page (JUDogs) run by a group of lecturers and students who take responsibility for their care and other dog welfare issues in the area.

What comes across to me is how these people appreciate the individual personalities of the dogs, and more and more I feel that this is a crucial connection lacking in too many situations where human residents and unowned dogs fail to live together peacefully. Remaining as strangers is far more likely to lead to tension than getting to know eachother. The urban environment isn’t always conducive to friendliness but I don’t believe it has to be that way and a more caring community attitude undoubtedly has other benefits.

It’s great to see a story like this from India that highlights the positives about having unowned dogs around to balance all the daily “dog menace” stories.

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)

Solving a Seychelles Stray Dog Problem Humanely

In response to unowned dogs roaming the Seychelles Bird Sanctuary and “wreaking havoc on the birds”, one man took a very humane approach to solving the problem (full story here). Nature Seychelles Chief Executive, Nirmal Shah, befriended the dogs and started feeding them outside the sanctuary at Nature Seychelles headquarters. By doing so the dogs no longer disturbed the birds and the office compound acquired “excellent guard dogs”. This informal adoption has proved very successful but as the dogs are abandoned pets he is also trying to reduce the long-term problem through campaigning against discarding pets and also accepts that this approach would not work in all situations.

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)

Handicapped Stray Dog Video

This video of a stray dog in China which has paralysed back legs but still manages to get around by walking with a “hand-stand” has been posted on Youtube several times and on different blogs many more times. Information about the animal is very sparse and I have not seen any details about how it came to be in this condition but a traffic accident would be a good guess.

I wasn’t going to post the video myself until I started reading some of the on-line comments, which are largely anti-Chinese and either make weak jokes about nobody wanting to eat such an animal or berate the Chinese in general for not adopting the dog as a pet.

However, the fact that a dog with such a handicap can so confidently walk around in this manner and actually look reasonably well-fed suggests to me that it is actually being looked after to some extent but in east Asian culture that does not necessarily mean as a pet. Rather than wondering why nobody has adopted this poor dog perhaps we should be wondering how it is able to carry on living on the streets without being adopted. It could well be a case of care in the community that would never happen in the societies providing the anti-Chinese comments.

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)

Cambodian Street Dogs

Here is a blog post about street dogs in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, by two backpackers travelling during their gap year. They have posted a good range of photos showing a variety of dogs, which are worth a look.

What I found particularly interesting was the picture of dalmatians with the comment about them being some of the scariest dogs they had come across and how they were “glad they were tied up”. These are very obviously pets and to me it is absolutely no coincidence that they were the nasty ones. Pets are socialised to people and react to human strangers as they would react to canine strangers i.e. by confronting them. Village dogs generally have a more balanced view of their relationship to people.

In countries with both pets and native streets dogs, time and again an open mind can see that pets are typically far more aggressive towards people than are dogs born to the streets. The problem is that most people do not realise that the dog snarling at them is actually a pet dog on the loose and thereby the generic idea of “street dogs” unfairly gets a bad name.

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)

StreetView Street Dogs

Inspired by a story about a rescued street dog in California that could be seen on Google StreetView (here), I had a wander around some of the streets of Bangkok on StreetView to see what I could find. Here are a few of the results:

© 2012 Google

© 2012 Tele Atlas

Then I had a quick look at where I used to live in Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand where street dogs were also quite easy to spot:

© 2012 Google

© 2012 Tele Atlas

Popping over to Mexico City I found fewer than I expected but in the right places where people gather and hang around there were also dogs:

© 2012 Google

© 2012 INEGI

Finally, on this quick tour I went to Moscow where there have been numerous stories in the recent past about the reported 30,000-35,000 stray dogs in the city. I spent about half an hour wandering around on StreetView but couldn’t find any of them. Interestingly, although I saw plenty of people walking about in pleasant weather I didn’t even see a pet dog on a leash. 

Of course, this doesn’t mean very much but does highlight to me that life for street dogs in different cities can mean very different things. In Thailand (and perhaps Mexico) they are accepted and live as an integral part of the urban community but in Moscow they seem to have to lead more furtive lives which is inevitably harder particularly given the harsh climate. 

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)