If you are not aware of this term, fret not :). It means “fear of dogs.” I actually looked up this term myself. Of late in our community, I see an abundance of this. Yes, we did have a very unfortunate event recently where a girl was bitten by a pet cocker spaniel. Of course, it is a very unfortunate incident that can be really very scary for the child. My sympathies to the child and her family. But, this must be looked upon as an individual case, really. Just because one pet dog bit, it does not mean that all other pet dogs must be condemned to skepticism or harsh measures. Definitely, action must and will be initiated against this dog owner and his pet but spare me the rhetoric.
Meanwhile, what is happening is that some people who are scared of dogs or hate dogs are spreading malicious stuff over our common mailing list. I mean dogs are the most lovable, gentle and sweetest of creatures around. One of the cynophobes, an old gentleman, is extremely cynical and even more frustrated because others are not buying into his Nazi suggestions like sending all pet dogs to foster homes is one of his bright ideas. Some other people suggested muzzling all pet dogs or de-nailing them! These people are delusional. It might be even hilarious to read the stupid ideas if they were not so pathetic. What is the perfect way to react? Not to react because such people are begging for reaction. The amusing part is that people with all kinds of personal agenda are jumping into the thread with their own hidden motives. “Apna ulloo sidha karna” is what I’d say. And the lady, who is the mother of the girl who was bitten, is the most balanced of the lot and very rational in her approach. So, I wonder why many others are making themselves look like idiots.
You have to see our mailing list. At times, it is a great source of entertainment :). There are a bunch of folks you can call “regular” who are always writing something or the other of no value solely because they have nothing else to do. I had to set individual filters to weed out this kind of content from my mailbox. Do you guys face something similar from your mailing groups?
Ah well, what can one say. We Indians are absolutely great when it comes to doing politics over anything or everything even when it comes to seemingly innocuous subjects like dogs.
Addon: I forgot to add that there are a lot of unhealthy, not vaccinated stray dogs in our layout. No one can do anything about them, but they want to go after healthy and vaccinated pet dogs. Good thinking :)!
Image courtesy: digitalart/freedigitalphotos.net
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