Some of the worst people I know have the cutest dogs. My gated community has both.
A field next to a lake near my house where a newly made rocky path snakes around grass is a battleground for strays and domesticated dogs whose owners simply do not understand that not everyone likes dogs, wants to be bitten or worse—wants to pet them.
As I walked on the stony path, I saw two teenage girls sitting on a tree. I do not know what they were doing but they were sitting on a tree. As I quickened my pace I heard yells of “come back here” so I immediately turned to my left. I gasped. A golden retriever was about to pounce on me. I said, “M****rf****r!”
Then I chanted my mantra softly. “Lord Shiva, please help me. Control Your form.” The dog stopped as if something was pulling it. Maybe my prayer? I continued to chant; however, this time I was chanting mentally.
To most loving people who like feeding strays and other people’s dogs on public land (such a social service!) a golden retriever can never get out of character, right? Wrong. You may think they are as sweet as the goody-goody “dog lovers” who walk their dogs without leashes in this country but the truth is all dogs can bite and when they do, we wake up to systems and processes that should deal with the problem of not only strays that are everywhere but also unleashed domesticated pets that are a menace thanks to their owners’ lack of awareness and concern for people who do not want a dog attacking them. Is it such a big task to leash your pet?
What hacks me off even more is a bizarre fact. Do you know that there is no law in Bangalore that states that dog owners should leash their dogs when they are outside their homes or in public places? Unreal! You can sue a dog owner whose dog has bitten you but there is no law to actually keep the dog away from you—so he is well within his right to have his dog unleashed but the moment you are bitten or mauled you have the right to sue. Such is the state of affairs in this city that it takes a different kind of mentality to curb the menace.
Is this not one of the many reasons why people move into gated communities? They are supposed to be utopias where rules are followed and implemented strictly. But with poor pay for security most of them do not seem to be the heavenly places they are made out to be.
Bharat does have a dog problem. To add to this, there is a problem that all cow-eaters possess: their love for animals stops at dogs and does not extend to cows because if they were to love cows, they would be militant Hindus who kill Muslims every day. If you think of it, the way in which dogs have been domesticated as pet animals while the cow has been left for its flesh, is a strange story. It means we accord respect only to animals that have been domesticated through a socio-political history that began with colonialism and that was set in motion by unfettered Westernisation.
Imagine! If cows were treated as pets through cultural capitalism and if dogs were eaten for their meat, we would be reversing practices that have contributed to the rise of parents like those I encountered on my walk today. They told their kids not to listen to me and to continue to walk their dog without a leash even though it was trying to jump on me.
