by Anushree Bindal
Imagine waking up one fine morning, getting dressed to hit the gym in Club 5 , whilst scramming through your favorite song and deciding to kick start your workout with a walk to the gym. You get out of your society with guns and roses blaring in your ears, and smile at the people who pass by. Just as you head a little further you are welcomed by a whiff of urinal smell that can even make Coco Chanel want to to vomit! You see one man handling 4 dogs, out of which 2 are clearly an aggressive breed followed by two tiny breeds who are happily defecating on the road, the walker oblivious to this is busy holding all four leashes with one hand as his other hand is occupied with catching up on the latest gossip with his buddy.
Once the tiny fur bodies have finished doing their business, the walker very nonchalantly walks away but what he has failed to do is clean up after the dogs. Now the feces have the power! the power to spread diseases and a not so very pleasant smell! if you’re thinking ” oh no! another dog hater!” you are very wrong- you see i am a dog lover myself! a sight of those cute fur babies has my heart melting, and having been a pet owner once myself i can tell you honestly- your dog walker needs to be taught on what dog walking as a job comprises of!
To begin with how can any doting, loving pet owner allow a dog walker to have 4/5 dogs ( mixed breeds) walk together- what is the safety of your dog? what if you have a small shih-tzu paired with a German shepherd- that’s recipe for disaster right there! the Bigger breed can get in a fight and hurt the other one!! Dog walker should be given a “poop bag” so that once the dog has relieved himself he can just scoop it up and discard it properly instead of leaving it for rest of the janta to enjoy the crime scene and the wonderful fragrance. if that is not enough, if you proceed a little further down you can see the love poured on the street dogs in form of food- thrown on the street. Now my math was never really that good but c’mon- you have unattended feces, urine and food bits all lying there on the bare road making a little kichdi of their own! is that safe for your beloved pets?
Club drive road, in all honesty has started to smell worse than the urinals at ISBT! and if you think im exaggerating- try taking a walk outside of Trinity and you will know exactly what i am talking about. my concern is that when will all the societies wake up and quite literally smell the piss! If we all can manage to fight for the rights of the dogs then shouldn’t their safety.. hygiene and well being be a part of it too? and if it is then what have you as a society done to ensure that we are not concocting another covid magnitude pandemic right outside our doors?
food for a thought- teach the dog walker you have hired about safety, cleanliness and hygiene of taking a dog out for a walk, for those wanting to feed the street dogs take a disposable plate which can be discarded once the dog has finished eating because more than anything, this is our club drive so lets try to make it pleasant for everyone instead of taking it personally and starting a debate lets work together to make it a beautiful, safe and clean space for all- after all aren’t we all practicing the swach bharat abhiyaan at our homes?
