I've been seeing a lot of dogs on the street. I doubt if it's really any more than usual, but dogs are everywhere. Yellow, medium-sized (10 kg?) dogs with skinny curled tails. They don't look particularly healthy, although they always seem happy. Last week I came across a pack of 14 dogs being chased out of a neighborhood by a couple of young boys (8-ish?). Even then, the dogs didn't seem particularly disturbed.
With the huge poverty rate in India, it's easy to understand why pets are uncommon. For much of India, it's difficult enough to scrounge sufficient rupees to feed a family, much less a pet or two. But dogs and cats face more than just poverty.
To Hindus, cats are evil -- they have the "evil eye". It seems to me that India could use a good dose of cats to keep the vermin under control. There's certainly no shortage of rats for a food supply. I've seen the occasional pet cat in Bandra, Goa, and Kerala -- all former Portuguese colonies with a significant Christian presence -- but not in Vapi.
On the other hand, Muslims have a deep dislike of dogs. I've seen a few kept dogs -- more as guard dogs than pets. Most of the dogs, though, are feral -- skinny, dirty, and mangy. A significant portion are lame in one foot -- most likely from a run-in with a motor vehicle. I've seen dogs on the street with injuries too sickening to write about. Males seem to outnumber females. I would guess that having a litter of puppies would challenge the resources of most bitches. I see very few puppies -- I'm sure that the puppy mortality rate is high.
The reason for all the dogs is an interesting environmental cautionary tale.
It all starts with vultures. At one time, India had one of the most robust vulture populations on earth. Most notably, vultures took care of dead cows and are essential for Parsis (a small religious minority), since they believe in neither burial nor cremation -- vultures "do the needful". Starting in the 1990s, vultures started disappearing at alarming rates -- as of now, vultures are at 1 to 3% of their former populations (depending upon species).
Why? The cause was eventually traced to a drug, diclofenac, used to control inflammation in cows. Diclofenac is extremely toxic to vultures. Exit the vultures.
What does this have to do with dogs? Dogs, and to a lesser extent rats, have taken over the scavenger niche. In addition to spreading disease, most notably rabies (50% of all rabies cases are in India), dogs are also prey for leopards, which have now moved into more populous areas, including the outskirts of major cities. Leopards prey on small mammals of all sorts -- including small children. You can read the whole story on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_vulture_crisis
With the huge poverty rate in India, it's easy to understand why pets are uncommon. For much of India, it's difficult enough to scrounge sufficient rupees to feed a family, much less a pet or two. But dogs and cats face more than just poverty.
To Hindus, cats are evil -- they have the "evil eye". It seems to me that India could use a good dose of cats to keep the vermin under control. There's certainly no shortage of rats for a food supply. I've seen the occasional pet cat in Bandra, Goa, and Kerala -- all former Portuguese colonies with a significant Christian presence -- but not in Vapi.
On the other hand, Muslims have a deep dislike of dogs. I've seen a few kept dogs -- more as guard dogs than pets. Most of the dogs, though, are feral -- skinny, dirty, and mangy. A significant portion are lame in one foot -- most likely from a run-in with a motor vehicle. I've seen dogs on the street with injuries too sickening to write about. Males seem to outnumber females. I would guess that having a litter of puppies would challenge the resources of most bitches. I see very few puppies -- I'm sure that the puppy mortality rate is high.
The reason for all the dogs is an interesting environmental cautionary tale.
It all starts with vultures. At one time, India had one of the most robust vulture populations on earth. Most notably, vultures took care of dead cows and are essential for Parsis (a small religious minority), since they believe in neither burial nor cremation -- vultures "do the needful". Starting in the 1990s, vultures started disappearing at alarming rates -- as of now, vultures are at 1 to 3% of their former populations (depending upon species).
Why? The cause was eventually traced to a drug, diclofenac, used to control inflammation in cows. Diclofenac is extremely toxic to vultures. Exit the vultures.
What does this have to do with dogs? Dogs, and to a lesser extent rats, have taken over the scavenger niche. In addition to spreading disease, most notably rabies (50% of all rabies cases are in India), dogs are also prey for leopards, which have now moved into more populous areas, including the outskirts of major cities. Leopards prey on small mammals of all sorts -- including small children. You can read the whole story on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_vulture_crisis
 |
| Maria got a photo of a rare Egyptian vulture at Fatehpur Sikri. |
Thanks for posting my photo! :) I was very surprised to see how few cats there were in India, especially since they generally enjoy a good reputation with Muslims and don't require many extra resources to feed. They certainly would help with rat control.
ReplyDelete