Stray dog nuisance

[essdee1972]

Atul, you have a Great Dane! Cool, man!! I would have kept one if my living quarters where somewhat bigger than the normal postage stamp Mumbai flat!

My dog doesn't roll in poop. Somehow he never has, although I have heard horror stories of dogs which roll in poop and then on the sofa (yuck!!!). In fact he runs away from poop - does his business and moves off, fast. He also drinks from the toilet bowl if his proper bowl, the buckets, and other sources are not filled. In fact the loo is his last choice. Probably coming from a lineage of champs has bred this behaviour???

Stray dog menace aside, the relationship between dogs and humans is a binary thing (0 or 1) - you either love them or you hate them!

Commonwealth_of_PA, in India, due to the huge amounts of untreated garbage we generate, we have lots and lots of feral dogs. These are not the true wild dog, aka dhole, but many-times hybridised mongrels. The strays are fully urbanised and if picked up from a puppy stage, make really great pets. You will sometimes come across strays which resemble some "known breed", usually due to some careless owner not taking due care of his dogs in the mating season. There are also people who dump dogs on the road, after buying one in an unconsidered moment and then finding that they are too much of a hassle! (Me, I dismiss my torn sofa and chewed chairs - they never came running when I came home, tail a-blur.) These abandoned dogs also add to the stray population. And if someone abandons a GSD or a Rott or a Dobie, you can expect huge amounts of aggression & power from their offspring.

We also have indigenous breeds - Rajapalyam and Rampur hounds are the two on the tip of my fingers, these however are quite rare nowadays and are bred by certain people interested in keeping the breed intact. These normally do not form part of the stray population.
(whereabouts in PA are you from, if I may ask? I have worked for companies headquartered in PA for last 15 years, and have a couple of cousins there)

[brihacharan]

Briha

[Commonwealth_of_PA]

EssDee,

I live in Lehigh Valley (near Allentown but rural).

We have packs of feral dogs in the USA but limited to small parts of cities and a few other areas. It's not common. I think I can envision what people over there are dealing with and I am not aware of any problem that serious here.

[essdee1972]

Cool! I have relatives in Wilkes Barre and Pleasantville. And I currently work for the Indian subsidiary of Hershey, earlier was with Heinz.

[mundaire]

This time a 7 year old child gets mauled to death in Delhi-

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities ... mia-nagar/


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[kshitij]

I am currently facing a different kind of nuisance by these strays. The dogs in my neighbourhood have developed a habit of climbing on top of cars and sleeping on the roof during the nights. This leads to the car getting scratches and paw marks when the dog go up and down.
I for one, like my cars to be spotless and have spent a fortune multiple times getting these marks off my cars. Have spent sleepless nights staying awake and shooing off the dogs that climb up my car.
Will keep polishing and shooing away till my patience runs out. After that, if they still dont learn, god save them.

[brihacharan]

Briha

[kshitij]

Brihaji, you and google are a deadly combination

[essdee1972]

These tragic occurrences will continue unless we hit the root of the problem - edible (for dogs) garbage. Blaming Maneka Gandhi, PETA, etc. doesn't help the issue. I am old enough to remember the time before these entities / people started getting concerned about feral dogs, the situation was not much better!

Poisoning, neutering, etc. are also very expensive solutions for which very few local bodies will have a sufficient budget. Plus we all know how much of a government budget is actually utilised for the job and how much goes into the pockets of sundry officials and contractors. You can expect some very rich vets! And you'll get some nice theories like the one where you spray "good" dogs with paint!

Relocation is just like purchasing on a credit card - you shift the problem to the future. And it doesn't help in the long run, as dogs from other locations soon move in - just like any other carnivore moving into an area vacated by the death or otherwise removal of its "possessor".

The long term solution would be to deny the food sources, hence removal of garbage. Hope the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan is carried on in full flow and we see results sometime! Normal municipal cleaning has not helped in so many years.

Kshitij, a black powder shotgun would be most effective as dogs are usually scared of bangs and flames. So you shoot a couple and the rest run away. But being an Indian citizen, you can't. Don't know how effective an airgun, even your German PCPs, will be on dogs. A normal springer like a IHP or Precihole will only hurt them for a little while and maybe make them angry.

[aadhaulya]

EssDee,

One can shoot someone in self defense though you get into legal hassles by shooting a person. I am sure one can shoot a dog in self defense.

Atul

[kshitij]

SD,
If killing and ridding was a solution i was ok with, it would have got done.
Problem is i love dogs too much and even the thought of hurting those strays makes me think of my dogs and i let it go.
Bang and flames is a good idea. Some fire crackers should suffice for that dont need a shotgun.
Like I said, will tolerate them till I can, after that will find a permanent solution to the problem.
Btw, none of my airguns are german now. Czech and Russian

[aadhaulya]

I also do not think if I would be able to kill a dog. But I had to take my dogs for a walk a couple of times on my daughter's request. I made sure that I was carrying my .22 revolver to scare away stray dogs if required.
But my dogs are also very scared of gun fire. On hearing gun fire they will run into anyone's room in the house and climb on to someone, including sitting on the face of the person. My daughters do not mind that but my wife throws a fit and banned my firing in the back yard. Though I am sure that it would not be a good feeling to have two huge dogs struggling to climb on to ones face.

Atul

[essdee1972]

Kshitij, Atul, and the rest..... I probably come across as someone who would pull out a gun as soon as I see a dog. I assure you that the opposite is the case. I didn't mention it above, but one of the reasons why I don't advocate poisoning dogs is that the poison they use causes the dogs to die horribly. I have seen it happen - and I don't want even my worst enemy to die like that.

[brihacharan]

After going through the various posts on "Stray Dog Menace" wherein shooting & poisoning them are "RULED OUT"....I have a suggestion (Out of the BOX)....here goes....
How about playing recorded "Leopard Coughs" (Leopards don't growl) where the strays are found.....as the dogs are shit scared of Leopards!!!!!
Briha

[amjadck]

It is very difficult to weed out the stray dogs by any artificial means. Poisoning, neutering, etc. will not work, at least in the Indian scenario. Why?

1.....

Nice read
What you do? An Editor, blogger.......?



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