Why Are Dogs The New Villains In India?

For over 14,000 years in recorded history, dogs have been our best friends. Through the corridors of time, across cities, towns, villages, forests, islands, deserts and mountains, the human-dog partnership has endured. It’s a testament to this friendship that some humans have even battled legal restrictions to be buried along with their furry friends. Yet, an escalating hostility against dogs is emerging in certain regions of India. 

“It kills me when I see how inhuman our society has become for dogs. The uber-rich people of these concrete jungles have probably lost the ability to think of anyone but themselves,” said Anupama Kalra, who runs a dog rescue center among the high-rise apartments in Gurgaon. Kalra, who helps find pet parents for adoption of dogs, says she is seeing a rising demonization of dogs in her vicinity, following the viral spread of videos depicting dog attacks in India.

In recent times, many videos depicting canine attacks, some resulting in grievous harm and loss of lives, have gone viral on social media. Incidents of dogs attacking people in elevators, on streets and in homes were reported from many places, including Noida, Mumbai and Kerala. In my hometown Aligarh in April 2023, after a man was fatally attacked by a group of dogs, this matter became a major discussion point in the town. 

“When will the administration be serious about eradicating dogs from our city?” a family friend asked me. While dog-catching vans roamed around the outskirts of the city, some localities had discussions to hire people to kill dogs living in their area. Even though the Indian constitution bats for protection for animals, India is said to be on a brutal path to deal with its stray dog population. 

However, experts say that dogs have not suddenly become more aggressive, it’s our perception of them that is changing. So we tried to find out the truth behind the growing demonization of dogs in India, the root causes behind dog attacks and who, if anyone, is responsible for them. For this, we talked to animal activists, rescuers, urban planners, digital-rights organizations and a dog psychic. 

A primary player in this game of hostilities are the RWAs (Resident Welfare Associations) and Apartment Societies in metro cities. “RWAs are actually the biggest culprits. They hinder our plans to rescue and feed the dogs in their locality. In fact, they’d rather let their leftover food go to waste than give it to the dogs,” Kalra told VICE, adding that hunger anxiety is, in fact, a major reason behind dog attacks. 

“The members of the RWA keep breaking the bins I put outside their locality for leftover food. In other cases, residents would hit the dogs with sticks or even run them down over by cars,” added Kalra. In many of these localities, the leftover food will eventually become a part of the mountains of garbage landfills, fast becoming a nightmare for administrators in India.  

Kalra also has solutions. “These societies could consider the dogs as their collective responsibility. If the market associations get involved, they can easily take care of 15-20 dogs of their locality, feed them, get them vaccinated, take them to veterinarians or safely neuter them. When hunger anxiety is gone, dogs become more loving and friendly, or just keep sleeping for hours,” Kalra said. 

On the other hand, administrators have their own set of problems. There are around 1.5 crore stray dogs in India. Between 2019-2022, the number of people bitten by animals in India was close to 1.5 crores. In the first six months of 2022, the number of cases of dog bites in the country went up to  14.5 lakh cases. Overall, nearly 174 lakh people are bitten by dogs in the world every year. But why do they actually bite humans?

According to animal communicator and dog psychic Asha Arun, the primary reason for the rise in increased aggression among dogs are, unsurprisingly, the humans. “The foremost language used by dogs to communicate with humans is mirroring, in which they try to copy human behavior. So if humans around them are aggressive, it would pass onto them,” said Arun. “First thing a dog picks up is your energy, then your emotions and anxieties, and then your body language. The last thing that matters to them is verbalisation or your words,” she added, 

Another reason, Arun says, stray dogs might be aggressive is because of their in-born territorial nature. “For them, it's not only human space but also their space. At night, they enter a guarding mode. When some stranger approaches them, first they bark and then come to sniff them. It is crucial to remain calm during this sniffing. Carrying treats is another effective way to safeguard yourself and make them see you as friends,” said Arun. 

For pet dogs attacking their owners and people in elevators, Arun points the needle to pet parents and dog owners who haven't learned how to train their dogs. Unable to interpret the cues of their pet’s body language, they often inadvertently provoke aggression in them. “When we are anxious about our dog attacking another person, we mostly hold their leash with more pressure. We don’t know that for the dog, it is a sign we are not sure of the person in question. Thus, they try to ‘take charge’ of the situation and become the masters,” said Arun. 

In line with Arun’s observations, several researchers have also documented that it’s mostly human error that leads to dog bites, how emotional states of humans is a major factor and what is the human and dog behavior that often precede an attack. Other studies have devised effective framework management that will significantly reduce dog bites and found out how communities in Bangalore have dealt with the problem through responsible practices. But why aren’t we able to use this knowledge to reduce cases of  bites and be more compassionate to the animals at the same time?

The primary reason, as per Madhav Raman, urban planner and partner at Anagram Architects, is the overlap between health policies and municipal policies, apart from bad policy implementations. “The municipal practice is that dog owners should register their pet with authorities, which is rarely practiced. The urban planners need to have an idea of the animal population they are trying to handle, so they can devise a plan. In reality, one can adopt a dog, abandon it or run over it, without any repercussions. The whole system is dysfunctional of sorts,” Raman told VICE. 

Handling the population of stray dogs is also the responsibility of the municipal corporations, but their guidelines are never applied. “Municipal authorities need to have an empathetic and pragmatic view for the strays, and not see them as a problem to be extinguished. Their standard policy is to round up dogs, neuter them and leaving them at a distant location. It is very disorienting for dogs. After that, they will be extremely nervous if humans approach them,” Raman said. 

Raman added that municipal governance for animals in a rapidly urbanising society like India is shockingly low. “In the Delhi master plan, every area as per its population should have land allocation for a veterinary facility. We rarely see them,” he said. According to Kalra, this is because of systemic corruption within municipalities and administration. “Lakhs of money is being passed in the name of animal welfare in India. They are supposed to set up veterinarian hospitals, dispensaries, rabies vaccination and sterilization. Most of this money eventually goes into the pockets of contractors and goons,” said Kalra. 

At the same time, videos of canine attacks continue to keep going viral on social media, shared on RWA WhatsApp groups, and contributing to this demonisation of stray and domesticated dogs. 

Prateek Waghre, Policy Director, Internet Freedom Foundation told VICE that such viral content can indeed alter perceptions about the prevalence of dog attacks. “A combination of more exposure to such content on social media, as well as increased coverage in the more traditional forms of media, leads to availability and recency biases where the spurt in content/news about such incidents increases the risk perception in the minds of people,” said Waghre. “It is also further complicated by the loss of lives in such instances, which can lead to performative policy responses that may have unintended long term consequences,” he added.

In the hysteria surrounding dog attacks, the silent truth is that the primary culprit for dog attacks is none other than us — the humans. Instead of taking responsibility, we conveniently pass the blame onto the canines, often portraying them as the villains.

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