Apologies for using another canine idiom right after the one in the headline, but on the stray dog issue, Indian animal lovers are barking up the wrong tree.

Stopping dogs from roaming the streets is not an act of cruelty, but of empathy. The most developed, disciplined, and considerate countries do it. It ensures public safety and hygiene and keeps dogs from going hungry unless there are piles of garbage or the whimsical milk of human kindness or freeze to death in the cold.

Dog shelters in numerous nations are far from being hell holes and allow much safer spaces for the animals than the rough streets. Sterilisation becomes easier in an enclosed environment. These centres become centres of adoption.

Compassion Without Borders in Mexico, Rudozem Street Dog Rescue in Bulgaria, The Perros Project in Peru, Tico in Austria, Bo Ai in China (which rescues from the dog meat industry) are among the many doing stellar work. India’s own Voice of Stray Dogs is acclaimed globally for its work.

India does have its unique problems regarding strays, much of it linked to its massive size, burgeoning human and canine population, and a festering lack of cleanliness and civic sense.

The large stray........

© News18