Man-animal conflict is nothing new, especially when it is about wild beasts venturing in human settlements, which were earlier encroached upon. However, it is a matter of concern when man’s best friend runs riot on a biting spree and the whole city walks red-faced over such incidents. One thing that most people fail to understand is the reason behind such attacks, says expert from the city’s Blue Cross clinic in Sector 22, a veterinary initiative initiated to help animals in despair.
The sudden fear about dog bites being propagated with the onslaught of summer clearly indicates that still there is a big misunderstanding among the people about rabies and its outbreaks. It is true that rising temperature do play a role but that should not be confused with the fact that each and every dog on the street goes mad in summers, said a volunteer working with the society.
Most of the time people blame the authorities for not taking adequate steps to curb the population of dogs in the city, but in doing so they forget one thing that dogs and crows are one of the most prominent scavengers that have been left and many others are almost extinct from, at least urban settings and the credit goes to human. However, it is true that municipality can keep a tag on the population of dogs, while neutering and spaying of mongrels at regular intervals will help reduce both the population and the incidents of dog bites, because opposed to popular beliefs, dog bites cases rises more during there mating season and it is a natural phenomenon.
A vet working with the Blue Cross on condition of anonymity (because he didn’t want people visiting Sector 19 dispensary to smash his car windows) said, “In many cases of dog bites even the person who is victimised is responsible. There are incidents when children have been bitten because they tend to go kick a dog for fun and the only defence mechanism that a dog has is their teeth.”
There have been cases when the Blue Cross Society has rescued dogs which had been severely abused just for fun. Recently in Panchkula two dogs were poisoned, with one carrying babies and the other just given birth to six litters. later, it was known that the litters were put in a gunny bag which was later smashed on the floor and thrown in the garbage bin; thanks there were no dogs around to report the case.
In one of the cases in which a dog was rescued from Sector 41, people almost stoned it to death. The reason behind the atrocity was that the dog had the audacity to bite a nine years-old boy, because the boy was hurling its puppies by their tale and throwing them helter-skelter.
Experts also added many a times people tend to feed dogs near their residence. It is a good gesture but one should understand that dogs are territorial in nature and they tend to protect their territory, especially the place where they are fed. It is good to feed a dog but the best way is to keep changing the place or do it inside the compound to keep it away from building a territory in the open. There have been cases of dog bites especially during the mating season of the canines. In many cases it has been noticed that people tend to throw stones or try to shoo off a pair and in turn are bitten. The best thing is to avoid, says experts, because voyeurism at times turns out to be costly when an animal is involved.