Today we were supposed to be in Murthal early in the morning, having parathas with Anupam, Dhruv, Geojo and Nitin but the plan fell through as Anupam wasn’t well. So we used the time to go for our walk. The daybreak was almost half hour away and there were hardly any walkers around, just a couple of regulars.
Besides the regular walkers, there were dogs out to do their thing .. the driver or the maid or the dog walker was out with his owner’s pet and the dogs went about pooping at their regular spots. Unfortunately most of their regular spots are also where human beings walked. We were watchful and avoided stepping into a poop pile. Then we saw the cleaning staff coming around and removing the dog poop from all those places where people walked. The dog walker, maid or the driver just took a happy dog back home.
The above situation is what is wrong with us “Indians”. We want to keep a dog and we love the dog, some of us may even take it for a walk, we will teach it tricks and be thrilled when the dog behaves well… but we won’t pick up the poop. That’s the cleaner’s job. We will blame the municipal corporation for keeping the streets dirty but will toss out the empty packet of chips on the road while driving our BMW 7 series car. We will blame the maid for not cleaning the house well, but we will throw the “rotis” out of the balcony for the pigeons to eat in the hope that we will get some “punya” (God’s brownie points given for good deeds done on Earth). We will blame Narendra Modi for introducing the Swachhta cess, but we will never pick up that plastic bottle lying on the road and throw it in the garbage bin nor will we agree to segregate waste at source – “its not my job”. I want clean roads, clean rivers, clean air – its the central government’s job to provide all this, while I will throw things out of my car’s window, spit anywhere, piss anywhere, not pick up my pooch’s poop, let the effluents from my factory go straight into the river, burn plastic, not use public transport, burn fossil fuel, have the air conditioner running forever…… extend it to the soldiers’ and its their job to die so that I can walk my dog in a safe neighbourhood….I can continue to rant but I won’t.
If you are the kind of dog owner who lets others step into your dog’s poop or thinks its the cleaners’ job to pick your pooch’s poop, your rights to own a pet must be withdrawn. Its a sick mindset and certainly unacceptable.
I have a simple solution, which I hope I can implement atleast in our apartment complex. There are CCTVs everywhere, so all we need to do is to identify the dogs and then we will know who their owners are. All we have to do is pick their dog’s poop up and deposit it outside their front door. Their kid will miss school for the day, the father may go late to work and the mother may just take the day off to sleep off the stress, but the message will hit home. If the behaviour doesn’t change then continue doing it till they learn.
Respecting and not violating your fellow human being’s space is a basic expectation when you live in the society and picking up your dog’s poop is one of the ways that you show that respect. But no, we are Indians, we want the “foreign” dog that’s in fashion, and “someone” to pick the poop.. Hmmm, I will just pray that such people step into dog poop left behind by others like them.
:(:(
Totally agree
I like your idea, Bindu. I’ve thought about doing a similar thing with litter, but delivering it to the steps of the county courthouse. As long as they have assumed the role of clean-up, and charge taxes for it, they need to do that job or forego the taxes, or at least make more trash cans available. With all the trash we generate in the US, trans cans are rare and usually overflowing.
It also occurs to me that people ought to throw spare change alongside the road where litter is bad. Maybe it will inspire someone to pick up trash looking for the coins. It may not work for dog poop, though, if the coins end up in it.
Katharine, if spare change is thrown alongside the road, just the spare change would get picked up :):). I think these folks are just wired differently and its a mindset change that’s required. Till something dramatically upsets them, that wiring will not change. I suspect stepping into their dog’s poop may also not bring about the required change in some people.
Common problem all over the world, not just India, with inconsiderate people who want pets but not the responsibility that comes with ownership.
Ken, that should make me feel a little better but it makes me sad. You used a beautiful word – “inconsiderate” people. And if I extend the argument a little, most of the global problems like poverty, racism, inequality are because of inconsiderate people !! Just terribly sad.
Bindu: Agree. Sign of the times or are we humans inherently like that?