-------------------------------------------------- Do GOACAN a favour, circulate this email to your family members, relatives, neighbours and friends. Help others be BETTER INFORMED, The time is come for the people of Goa to ORGANISE not AGONISE !! -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- Why stray dogs always will be a problem -------------------------------------------- by C M Corcoran, Colva, Goa
Now that the party's over and the tourists have returned home, we are faced with the problems of starving stray dogs roaming the beaches. Culling them has the charm of simplicity, but such measures have proved completely ineffective in controlling either rabies or the dog population in the past, because as long as we deliberately choose not to have our pets sterilised, whether for moral or lifestyle reasons, or just plain laziness, we will always have stray dogs. Here is a good example why. My friend called me about six months ago. 'Come and see' she cried, 'Tootsie has had puppies and they are just adorable'. Tootsie is just one year old now, and this is her second litter. Well, I went off to admire them. Two males and three females. 'We've already got homes for the two males' my friend announced proudly. 'What about the others' I asked. 'We'll see' she murmured, and I feared the worst. Later I called and asked whether she had found homes for the female puppies. She hadn't, but it didn't matter, she assured me, she had left them in Gandhi Market in Margao where local traders would look after them. She had abandoned her female puppies when they had ceased to be cute and adorable. Margao had gained another three fertile strays, capable of having up to ten puppies each year of their own. And each of those ten puppies will have at least two litters in each of the following years. In all, this one act of supreme stupidity will mean that we have around 700 new stray dogs in the next two years. My friend is one of the most vociferous voices when the subject of stray dogs comes up in conversation. They should be culled, shot, poisoned, whatever, but something must be done about the problem. I want to tell her that her actions have a consequence. I try to be positive. 'Will you have Tootsie sterilised now?' I ask. But no! they all love having her puppies around. The shocking fact is that all the stray dogs in Margoa's Gandhi Market have been collected and taken to the Goa Animal Welfare Shelter at least five times in the last 6 years for treatment. But if you visit the market today you will nevertheless see many hungry, sick, hopeless dogs and young puppies, abandoned because they are past their cuteness and probably female, and now condemned to die a slow death from starvation and illness. So the problem of stray dogs goes round in circles. Every action has a consequence. Let's make the effort to have our pet dogs and puppies sterilised and given an anti-rabies vaccine. Encourage everyone you know who owns a dog to do the same. Rather than dump unwanted puppies, call the local animal welfare organisation and ask if they could arrange adoption. Or put up a notice in your local veterinary clinic about them. The dog population will start to become stable, non-breeding, non-aggressive and rabies-free. I think the one thing everyone agrees on is that Goa has more than enough dogs, and you know it makes sense. Here is a candle to light the darkness. On 23rd March last Goa Animal Welfare Trust sterilised its 1,500th stray dog this year. This means that they have already prevented the births of something like 75,000 unwanted pups over the next 2 years. They're doing their bit. How about the rest of us? ------------------------------- HERALD 22/05/06 page 10 ------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- GOA CIVIC AND CONSUMER ACTION NETWORK ---------------------------------------------------------------------- promoting civic and consumer rights in Goa --------------------------------------------------------------------- GOACAN Post Box 187 Margao, Goa 403 601 GOACAN Post Box 78 Mapusa, Goa 403 507 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org)