Strays...

Indian roads are full of automobiles, people, garbage and strays(i am not sure about the first two). One cannot travel even few meters without spotting a stray. Neither the government nor the people tend bother about this issue. Our people have gotten used to such roads filled with strays and garbage.

What is the reason for lots of strays in our roads?

Initially government did not have any policies on stray animals. The strays later kept multiplying and left the government in a situation where a policy/decision to be made on it. They later decided to catch the strays(dogs mostly) and send them to slaughter house. Is this a good solution? A BIG NO!

We should have stopped the growth of strays in the first place through some birth control programs. Its unfair to kill those animals for our mistake of letting them grow in infinite numbers. At-least now we should have had some birth control and adoption program so that the problem is eradicated in next couple years. But our government chose a simple way. Kill them all!

What are the problems faced due to Strays?

Strays pose several problems to the road users. I myself ran in to a dog the other night and had a pretty good fall. Cows are let to sleep in the road sides(sometimes in the middle of the road) during nights posing serious risks for night riders. Dogs stray the streets. Even though they bark away the strangers to the streets during night time, they too pose good amount of danger to the commuters.

Once, after a long day in the office, i took a office cab back home. I got down in a common spot from where the car had to take a diversion to drop off other guys. I had to walk about a mile to reach home. The streets had no lights and were filled with stray dogs. I looked funny with a big raincoat and bigger shoulder bag on me. The dogs went mad and were barking at me. Luckily they did not go madder and bite me as i did not try to run!

Today while i was traveling to my office, a cute-little-well-fed puppy trying to cross the road(the ever busy tnagar-saidapet junction) and got caught up in the traffic. Luckily there was no way one could speed in tat road. Luckily (to my surprise), all the vehicles stopped and waited till the puppy to cross. But there is no way the puppy could cross the road as it had a two feet median in the middle.

It was just standing right in the middle of the road helplessly starring at us. As most of the vehicles were cars, rest mere spectators and i was the closest person the to puppy, i had to stop my bike and help the dog cross the road. Being a small puppy it ran off to the other side of the road after seeing me coming. But again tried to cross the road when i was about to start the bike. I again had to put my bike on stands and this time, some how managed to get hold of the puppy and passed it to the other person standing on the other side of the road. Traffic was affected for at-least 10 minutes. Even though things went on pretty smooth today for the puppy, the dog might not get lucky everyday! Lots and lots of dogs are killed in the Indian roads daily.

Even though blue cross(and other organizations) do their part of saving these animals, we have to give a lending hand to such organizations and help them perform better. Adopting a stray is not an ugly thing to do. It is in-fact one of the proudest thing to do. Many people think its a shame to adopt a stray. They instead want imported well-bred-dogs to show off their status. By doing so(adopting), we can save many stray animals and get stray free roads.

Update:
A vet approaches HC to implement Birth Control on Strays. More here.