Stray dogs roaming Rawalpindi streets

The Rawalpindi city generally has seen its fair share of difficult situations over the years, from the shortage of water to unscheduled heavy load shedding. Today this city faces another struggle i.e. countless stray dogs starving and neglected roaming its streets throughout the day and night is a common sight.

“In every season the dogs really do seem to lead a passive lifestyle. They all look malnourished and diseased, they’re social with most other dogs, and some strut around the streets as they please, sniffing, playing, sunning and biting at will on the streets,” says Hasan Naqi, a trader.

“When these ailing and underfed creatures can’t tolerate hunger and are unable to easily find food, they become mad. So, it becomes necessary to travel in twos or threes with some method of defense such as carrying a wooden stick. Walking to a bus stop, to nearby market, the mosque or to a friend’s house, for example, may no longer be safe,” adds Hasan.

“These days many think of their pet dogs as essential members of the family. Roaming the streets maybe loads of fun for most dogs, but it is simply not safe. Whether you live in a posh area or just a poor neighborhood letting pet dogs run loose in the streets is a bad idea,” says Ahsan Ali, a varsity student.

Abraz Jafri, a teacher, says: “Dogs and humans have successfully coexisted for hundreds of thousands of years. People keep dogs as watchdogs or farming aids. I saw an old lady yesterday in the area with a dog shepherding her pack of goats, adding then there is the behind the scene reality of so-called happy, free dogs. The dogs that appear to live free and in abundance in Pindi are really only living on borrowed time. Most of them are culled in once or twice yearly poisoning sprees, a form of population control.”

“Of an entire pack of five-to-ten healthy puppies, generally only one or two ever make it to adolescence or adulthood. The rest are killed by cars, cruel or desperate people, disease, dehydration, or even by getting lost from their pack or gravely injured,” says Asad Abbas, a maternal cousin of Abraz Jafri.

Haider Sherazi, a welfare worker, says: “We have been taught sensitivity to the pain and sufferings of animals and therefore people do not drive away the stray dogs which have become blight on the locality. In fact butchers’ shops and restaurants’ sheds have become a home to the stray dogs. The issue of rising number of dogs was pointed out to the authorities concerned that a rabid dog had bitten many persons on a single day, but nobody heard.”