Bangalore’s rules for pets, strays curb RWA high-handedness

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, or Greater Bangalore Municipal Corporation, has issued guidelines for the care of pets and stray animals, finally ending the abuse of position and power by the tinpot dictators of residents’ welfare associations, commonly referred to as RWAs, local newspapers reported. Under the guidelines, these ‘welfare’ associations, usually dominated by people who are derisively referred to by progressive citizens and younger generations as WhatsApp uncles, have been told to ensure that...

Stray dog barking at odd hour helps woman escape clutches of would-be rapist

This little report is likely to bother those who hate stray dogs, keep complaining about their barking at odd hours, and want them removed, relocated, or destroyed. The barking of a stray dog in a deserted, unlit bylane in Vasai town, about 60 km from Bombay, well past midnight startled a would-be rapist long enough to enable his intended victim to escape from his grasp, according to the local police. The incident took place at...

Animal welfare group launches ‘Bring Love Home’ campaign to boost adoptions

Best Friends Animal Society, an animal welfare organization working to end by next year the killing of dogs and cats in American shelters, has unveiled its “most ambitious campaign”, ‘Bring Love Home’. The campaign aims to inspire pet lovers across the country to adopt pets by emphasizing all the positive contributions that rescued pets bring to homes, “at a time when Americans need love, comfort, fun, and zoomies more than ever”, the organization said in...

Spare a thought for our strays on World Stray Animals Day

Today is World Stray Animals Day, dedicated to increasing awareness of stray animals the world over and the problems they face. The day was inaugurated in 2010 by over 100 Dutch organizations convened at the Dutch National Stray Animals Conference. April 4 was chosen on account of being exactly six months from World Animal Day. By consensus, “stray” animals are defined as pets that have been abandoned or lost. As many Indian cities, towns and...

Woman feeding stray animals accused of hurting religious sentiments

In most cities in India, quarrels between humans who take their constitutional duty to look after animals seriously and those who think of the action as a nuisance are common. Now, one self-proclaimed social worker in South Bombay has taken the matter to a new level by claiming that a woman who feeds animals in her area was doing so to hurt religious sentiments. Following the social worker’s complaint, officers of the Gamdevi police station...

Stray dogs, cows, rats… Jalandhar park’s unwanted residents

One look at Company Bagh in Jalandhar, Punjab, is enough to put you off from planning an outing there. Reason? The place is the fiefdom of stray animals and rodents. Company Bagh, one of several eponymous parks in North Indian towns, is nominally under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Yet, like several historical sites and cultural monuments in the country, it is not maintained properly. According to a report in The...