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The Friendliest Animal!

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Desh Bir

The other day I chanced to spot a couple of rectangular polythene tents pitched along the wall in two corners of the park near my house. Curiosity had me probe the motive. As I neared one of them , I was greeted with a loud bark from a mother bitch guarding her new born pups. Some dog lovers had taken the step to offer a safe and cozy space to the stray friends of man. It gave me a reason to go into the logic of this act.
I have been maintaining a pet dog for the last 31 years. Before that I used to dread this species of canines. However, once I had owned the first Pomeranian, my family could not think of living without a pet dog.
In the history of evolution of human civilization, dog was the first animal to be allowed into homes as a pet. And the reason is its ability to identify its interests with those of man. No other animal, perhaps, understands human emotions and even lingual communications as unfailingly as a dog can.
Its olfactory sense is so infallible that it is used as a retriever. Its chemo-receptors numbering nearly 300 million can identify 10000 to 100000 times more smells than a man can. That makes them sense the owner even from a distance of several miles.
Which other animals could do that? On account of this unique faculty, they can sense moods of anger, despair, joy or love in the members of the family. When you look in their eyes with love, they experience a surge of love hormone – Oxytocin and respond in the same currency. When you look into their eyes with disapproval or anger, they look away as if scolded. It is these reasons which bring a dog close to man in the relationship of a companion.
A small pup licking your feet or palm when you are unwell or uncomfortable proves to be a stress buster. A couple of moments spent in playing with your pet dog leave you relieved of all gloom or fatigue. The members of your family can be harsh, jealous, angry, whimsical, or irrationally cross with you, but your dog is never so. Its tail sways with unfathomable joy when you approach it.
An estimated recent figure of dog population in the world is put at 900 millions. This includes pet dogs, stray dogs and free-range pooches. It means there is one dog for every eight human beings in the world.
he U.S. has nearly 73 millions dogs and 43 million US homes have one or more pet dogs. They have exclusive dog hotels and restaurants there and Americans spend more than 50 billion dollars on their dogs annually. Workplaces is US are becoming increasingly pet friendly. Do you know there are up to 7000 pet dogs everyday at Amazon’s Seattle Headquarters? That is quite a lot of dogs!
Next come China and Russia. In Russia stray dogs have learnt even to use the Metro system. Some of our favourite breeds like Samoyed and Siberian Huskies originated in Russia. India stands at the sixth rung with a population of 1,020000 dogs. However, here the number of stray dogs is fairly large and it proves to be a hazard for children and aged people when they attack humans in a group.
Animal lovers are against killing stray dogs for the simple reason that life should not be terminated without a reason. Killing a lamb or goat or a pig or a chicken is justified by non-vegetarians on the grounds that there is a valid reason for it. That is selfish human logic! Containing the population of stray dogs should be done in some other ways like sterilization. After all, dog is the friendliest species for humans!
(The author is a Retired Principal, Government College, Hoshiarpur, Punjab)

 


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