On 18th September, 2020, I got this message in a residents’ group. The resident, Mr. Y, reported that his wife was bitten by a bunch of aggressive street dogs. Below is his message.
“Hello everyone,
This is to inform that my wife has had dog bite from stray dogs in front of House no <> of Dollars colony when she was returning from evening walk on 16/9/20 around 7.30 pm. She had to be taken to MS Ramaiah Hospital where she was given TT & anti Rabies inj. She was also advised to take additional Rabies inj on 4 different dates. One can imagine the trauma and agony she is passing through.
There is a pack of 5-6 stray dogs always sitting in front of H No <> being fed by the occupants of the nearby homes and by pet dog walkers. These strays have made this road their territory and aften bark at the passersby. There were 2-3 instances when these dogs had earlier tried to attack my wife without any provocation. This incident happened when someone walking his pet dog was feeding these strays with biscuits.
Lovers of stray dogs are therefore requested not to feed them in front of their homes so that they don’t make those roads their territory and attack the passersby.
Kindly advise me as to who are the auth in bbmp to approach for redressal of this issue.
I am also posting pictures of few of those dogs resting taken today and the diagnosis of MS Ramaiah Hospital.
Thanks.🙏🙏🙏”
Not surprisingly, this triggered off a plethora of supporting comments. Someone promptly lodged a complaint on the BBMP website. (Many are under the erroneous impression that if they log the complaint on BBMP Sahaya, the dogs will be taken away.) And some ignorant Ms. P caused even more panic by suggesting that the dogs must be rabid! 🙄 And some people began to suggest that people should feed only between 11 PM and 4 AM.
The attached advice card from MS Ramaiah hospital said teeth marks seen on thigh but also said no bleeding.
I waited until night for all the angry messages to come in, and then I sent them this response.
“Dear all, I have been reading the various messages on the dog topic today, and I’ll share my two cents’ worth.
First of all, Mr. Y, I am sorry to note what your wife went through. I am relieved, though, that there was no bleeding. Another point that struck me was that it would be dark, and plenty of snakes are seen moving around these days. [Meaning that I would be far more worried about the snakes, because, if it’s a bite from a venomous snake, one has very little time to take remedial action.]
Also, I would like to set Ms. P’s mind at rest — the dog is extremely unlikely to be rabid, because rabid dogs typically die within ten days of showing symptoms.
Causes for the dogs’ aggression
Some dogs are like kids — they do not want to share their goodies with other dogs (understandable), and they even think that any human being passing by may want to take their food! (This is why people are advised not to go near a dog that is eating, or one that is feeding her puppies.) This is classic “food aggression” in the animal kingdom. Of course, some dogs may also become aggressive from trauma, such as fast-moving vehicles hitting them or running over their puppies.
We are told that the dogs are being fed. Ms. MJ has brought up a question that requires a little research: What kind of food are they getting? If it is only biscuits, that could be a cause for discomfort — we too would be most uncomfortable if we ate only biscuits all the time. A good wholesome meal (with 20-30% fat) keeps them satiated.
Rights/ duties of “feeders”
There is no point in picking an argument with the feeder for feeding any animal, because the law permits it. We all have seen the AWBI circulars from time to time. Of course, it’s important to ensure that the feeding be done at a time and place that does not inconvenience people too much. Here is the latest one; this is the English version. The Kannada version is here.
So, how do we resolve this?
As Ms. MJ has mentioned, many feeders have been harassed by other residents, so the two sides are not even willing to talk to each other. My suggestion is that both sides collaborate a bit instead of the whole thing being seen as a witch hunt against any one side. We need to treat this as a community exercise. As far as the place is concerned, it’s not practical to move the feeding spot more than 100-200 metres from their typical spot. It may help to break the packs — that is, instead of one person feeding 12 dogs together, let three people feed four dogs each, in collaboration with each other. Alternatively, if only one person does the feeding, two others can help by standing guard for a few minutes while the feeding is in progress. Also, as for the time, it’s not advisable to do it very early or very late, because all sounds get amplified at that hour, disturbing everyone’s sleep!
Someone has mentioned that a pet dog walker threw some biscuits and this was what started the commotion. Please have a talk with her and ask her to look around before tossing the biscuits; I’m sure she’ll be reasonable and understand the issue.
What will BBMP do?
BBMP can only do whatever is stipulated in the AWBI circular, i.e., they will neuter any dogs that are not neutered, and re-vaccinate all of them. The same laws of the land apply to BBMP — they are not allowed to relocate any dogs. Besides, removing a dog only creates a vacancy for a new one — I think I have shared the HSR Layout story, where removing 10-20 existing dogs resulted in 40 new dogs coming in. In case you find it useful, please refer to my blog posts at
https://straydogsblr.wordpress.com/2020/04/09/faqs-street-dogs/
and
https://straydogsblr.wordpress.com/2018/02/04/faqs-dealing-with-aggressive-dogs/.
Ultimately, we citizens need to keep a tight eye and control the dog population. If each of us does this, and also does it for a radius of 1/2-1 km around our respective colonies. we’ll gradually be able to bring down the numbers. Of course, it will not happen overnight — but then, they didn’t multiply overnight either!”
Puppy Love RMV 
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