Do we need to rethink our dog shelters?

Every kind-hearted animal lover wants to start a shelter. However, what if shelters are not the solution, but part of the problem.

It's a problem UK-based John Rogerson,(inset) one of the world's leading canine behaviourists and dog trainers, has been pondering about. Rogerson, who holds an annual International dog trainer course in Lonavala, near Mumbai, has been working on a new shelter prototype in Bangkok that aims to be redundant in 25 years.

The current problem our country faces is non-selective neutering of all Indian breeds under the ABC (Animal Birth Control) programme; and excessive and indiscriminate breeding of foreign breeds unsuitable to our climate.

For instance, Animals Matter to Me — a shelter spread over one acre in Mumbai — spayed 1,347 animals (cats and dogs) in 2016. Welfare of Stray Dogs has successfully implemented a canine population control programme in south Mumbai over the last two decades. YODA (Youth Organization in Defence of Animals), which rehabilitates dogs through their shelter and a network of paid fosters, includes a neutering clause in the adoption process.

"The hole created by lack of congenial indigenous breeds," says Rogerson, "is filled by the trend of unsuitable pedigrees." Rogerson's fear is backed by historical data: The Family Dog, created, as the name suggests, to be the perfect congenial family companion dog is now extinct due to non-selective neutering. In its place, breeds such as Weimaraner (a dog bred for hunting, and thus needing high levels of physical and mental stimulation) are gaining popularity, which are ill-suited for urban homes.

In India, indiscriminate breeding by unethical breeders spawns dogs with congenital illnesses such as deafness and defects such as hip-dysplasia, undesirable temperament, who are as it is unsuitable to Indian weather.

Such puppies find themselves shunted from homes to shelters swiftly — either because their medical expenses are too much to bear; or because of behaviour issues such as aggression and anxiety.

The result is shelters that swell with donations to accommodate surplus and "undesirable" puppies created by breeders. And those that indiscriminately neuter dogs who could have the malleable temperament that should be passed down for family dogs or professional jobs; or are better suited to our climate and terrain.

There's a lesson Rogerson hopes Asia will learn from UK's mistakes. "Dogs Trust (an animal welfare charity in the UK) put aside £73 million to buy more land to develop more shelters!" he says. If shelters need to swell every year, they are clearly not part of the solution.

Rogerson's solution is this: Decide on a capacity that the shelter can accommodate and regulate. Employ an experienced and trained canine behaviourist, who is able to sift the dogs according to their temperament. Then, spay or neuter the aggressive, nervous, and genetically 'defective' cases. If they are not compatible with humans or other animals, let them live their life in an enriched, cage-free but isolated environment. Leave intact the people pleasers, work on their behavioural issues and match them with appropriate homes. This will bring down the return rate and create a lineage of desirable dogs.

If the dog shows an aptitude for service, train it for a job — sniffing, herding, guarding, therapy, or assistance work. "Such a shelter should become the place to go to if someone wants, say, a sniffer dog," says Rogerson. "We would confidently provide one for the job."

The key to the success of such a project lies in educating the population. "The children of today are the breeders of tomorrow," he says. "They can be taught ethical breeding, humane training methods, or just be made aware of how much a responsibility having a dog is, so that the decision is not made lightly." Field trips from schools, volunteering at the shelter, and taking canine-children familiarisation programmes to schools is one way of doing this.

YODA and AMTM do this in small measure — schools are invited over, some children celebrate their birthdays among animals, volunteers are invited to interact with the animals.

A hurdle in India would be educating authorities — those in charge of procuring dogs for security purposes— that an indigenous breed or mix breed is as capable as a foreign pedigree. We have seen an unprecedented swell in fawn Labrador Retrievers after the terrorist attacks. These are the breed of choice for security charades. The demand is fulfilled by unregulated, uninformed, non-selective over-breeding.

If customs, police, and other security authorities could be convinced, it would dampen the glamour of pedigrees as aspirational totems, and make room for deserving pets.

The Irony

Sweeter dogs are the first to be neutered because they are friendly enough to be caught. The aggressive and the fearsome ones, the kind we don't want, are left to breed on streets because they are harder to catch. The result is, we have more puppies each year in India with undesirable traits.