17 Feb 2023! Time 0945h!! Comes in a call to reach the Sector 40 Police Station. There has been a showdown between the dog lovers and A Block residents.
Both parties are deeply aggrieved. Politeness has taken a back seat. The matter pertains to one female canine, which has become aggressive and has been attacking and biting the children and elders in the particular A Block lane. The residents want her out. The dog lovers want no re-location.
Key SCRWA EC led by the Prez, besides a horde of concerned well-meaning residents, descend upon the P.S. Everyone is concerned that a Colony matter has reached the Police. Sad tidings indeed for any up-market Colony. Harmony is at risk. For most of us reaching there, the matter is not about human or dog well-being. It is about conflict resolution and the need to be able to sit and talk as sane, mature folks and try and seek a solution. A lot of ‘tu-tu, mey-mey’ continues to take place. Tempers refuse to calm. Via media suggestions are rejected by the dog group, which in turn infuriates the affected residents more and vice versa. Two hours later, some written complaints are registered at the P.S. The entire Police Team is exasperated and on the verge of losing their patience. Two simple take-aways:
The dog has been biting and being aggressive as validated by multiple Block residents. One cannot expect a parent to accept this threat to their child or family elder without reacting strongly to it. Any parent, a mother especially, will kill a cobra if her child is threatened. Same rule applies to any animal as far as she is concerned. Hence, as dog lovers, we MUST appreciate their point of view. Merely saying that in case of a bite, we will pay for the treatment, etc, actually irritates the other party more, and is always best avoided. How will any dog lover, including me, ever compensate for the trauma and the lifelong dog phobia a child may develop if attacked and bitten by a stray.
• On the flip side, 99% of canines, especially strays, are generally over-friendly. They love to be fed, to be petted, to be molly-cuddled. This attitudinal defect (actually a god gift) is across the board in all strays. They are bundles of love wrapped in fur. I must compliment the agitated residents, that they were willing to give a window of 7-10 days to the ‘stray moms’ to feed and mollify this particular canine and then, and only then, if it still remained aggressive, to have her removed by MCG or re-located by the dog group. Relocation is legally not tenable but sometimes, an environmental change and being closer to an ardent ‘stray mom’s home’ may be actually good for the canine.
I will be shot down for my views by both groups involved here. I frankly don’t care. My aim has always been and shall continue to be, to find solutions to human-animal conflicts, in a way that both get maximum benefits. It can never be ‘my way or the highway’. In any human-animal conflict, which is left simmering, the eventual loser is always the animal. Compassion and empathy will pacify the aggrieved human. Compassion and empathy will also ensure the future well-being of not just the stray involved, but also every stray across the Colony.
The SHO had a meeting of the key concerned in the evening. By then, tempers had cooled and each side was more malleable to listening. Apologies were offered for the brashness of the morning. A compromise was reached. The matter was closed. Everything may seem hunky-dory, but I feel this episode will leave a permanently sour taste in the interpersonal relationships of many residents within the Colony. That is not nice at all.
The SCRWA has an important role to play here.
by Col Anil Alagh (HNo M-115, 9312247284)
