One summer evening in 2013, I was walking to a grocery store in New Area Morabadi in Ranchi, Jharkhand – India, I saw a dog resting calmly next to a fellow canine. When I took a closer look, I realised a fellow comrade had passed on in what seemed a natural death. The dog must have spent some quality with the deceased. It took me some considerable time studying these two fellows.
I have always wanted to share this story but something has been holding me back since then. I was in India from 2012 to 2013, and during my stay, I learned a lot about the Indian culture, the people, food, and I am glad to say, I admire and miss India. My experience with the great country will come another day.
Well, as humans, we might not understand the full extent of a dog, our canine friends losing a comrade and their emotional despair, the feeling of missing a mate or something has a devastating impact.
There are many anecdotes that suggest that animals do feel what humans refer to as ‘grief’, including an understanding that the deceased is not coming back, but there have been some scientific pieces of evidence to back this up. We should all accept that many species are affected by loss and experience feelings of sadness and loneliness.
Well, a research group of scientists, published in Scientific Reports, and authored by an international group of scientists, test our instincts on this matter, finding that dogs do indeed exhibit behaviours consisting of mourning.
Apart from that, a paper, co-authored by psychologist Stefania Uccheddu from the University of Padua, suggests that we need to be sensitive to the needs of a mourning dog and that we devise and employ effective strategies to comfort our canines as they adjust to the newly created void in their lives.
Another study by a group of researchers from the University of Milan and several other institutions surveyed 426 dog owners in Italy, asking them to document changes in their dogs following the death of another dog in the same household. A colossal 86% of respondents reported negative changes in their surviving dog, an array of altered behaviours that at least superficially resemble signs of grief.
Apart from that, India has a high population of stray animals including dogs, cows, and goats that roam freely on the streets of many places in the country.
It is believed and documented, that one of many public health crises gripping the sub-continent of Asia today is the approximately 60 million stray dogs that roam the streets of India. According to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, almost 96% of rabies cases in India are caused by stray dogs and so India leads the world in rabies deaths.
The biggest reason for the increasing population of stray dogs is open garbage. Municipal authorities across the country deal with thousands of tonnes of garbage a day but are able to process less than half of it. Home composting and source segregation have not gained a lot of ground in the country, which makes garbage a source of ready food for dogs.
According to a 2011 estimate, dogs bite around 17.4 million people in the country every year. Free-ranging dogs also kill livestock and wildlife, including species enjoying the highest level of protection through both predation and disease.
In India, stray dog management comes under the purview of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act 1960 and State Municipal Acts. Both mandate the removal and/or euthanisation of unowned dogs from the streets.
Well, dogs may experience anxiety when a comrade they spent a lot of time with no longer roams around with them or isn’t there to share in the excitement of going out for a walk, pet owners should try to comfort their dogs if they get near for a cuddle. They need to be praised for calm behaviour. Take the time to focus on your bond with your surviving pet, just in case you love pets.
Wako Joel 