Pet Defecation -A Rising Issue

Before moving towards the headline for today ,I would like to share something like a short version of the events that have been frequently happening but are likely to be neglected.

On a bright morning,a pet owner along with his barking pet stopped near our house.A quick look from the balcony and what I witnessed was the dog defecating while the owner was enjoying songs from his headphones.I confronted the owner peacefully and his reaction and response was like the road is not yours and went on his way.

Firstly I would like to share in short what is actually meaning of the heavy terms which may be in this article Responsibility and Obligation used casually.

Lets get started with Responsibility.You might have read about Winston Churchill thought

The price of greatness is Responsibility.

By convention lets explore Dictionary meaning first.

Cambridge dictionary defines it as something that it is your job or duty to deal with.

Like citizens of any country we have many duties or 'responsibilities' or a manager is responsible for his employees.Giving a more concrete example reminiscing former Indian President Dr. Abdul Kalam's views when he was a Project Director of SLV-3 at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) when the space launcher had failed to take off, Mr. Kalam said the then ISRO chief Satish Dhawan took the blame for the failure and promised to launch the spacecraft within one year, which India did.

Moving on the next word , Obligation

As per tradition let go to dictionary first:

Cambridge defines it as the fact that you are obliged  to do something

The act of binding oneself by a social, legal, or moral tie to someone.That means you are obliged under some sort of contract and you have to do it under terms and conditions A historic example would be a student trying to complete his/her homework (which should be a responsibility but often not !) or a person's obligation to pay to the banks the loan.

Many of you might be wondering what do these terms mean for the greater problem of PET Defecation. Talking a shallow dive in history , we come to know that even Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization 'domesticated' animals. Animals such as cow were used for milking purpose,dogs for hunting birds or like a guard dog or horses for travelling. A note here that I have highlighted the word 'domesticated' here. A pet animal is used as a companion which serves for both human and itself while domesticated animals are used for economic and recreational purposes.

One might wonder what is the meaning of all these definitions, history and whatnot.So we come directly to the main point reference to the short story which was mentioned at the start.

According to the 2011 Harris Polls in America, 90 percent of pet owners think of their dogs and cats as members of the family.

Within a short span of time,pets have formed a mutual and a great connection with humans.Like taking a dog to ride,forming a good connection with your horse and remembering about the birthday or death of a beloved pet.Even animal rights are exercised by governments and support is shown by many of the people.This is indeed an incremental step into humans psychology about the love and kindness to everyone.

But the point is about our duty or responsibility we have towards them.Few years ago a woman beat a dog to death and many animal activists had pointed her out.But when we take a minute to realize our own methods like for instance we become lazy to take our dog for a walk or even when we ignore our friends,family or relatives for our pet.We begin to treat it like an obligation that we have and from that point we become robots doing daily routine like feeding our pet,talking for a walk or spending some alone time.Consciousness of our living with the pet goes away.This mindset paves a new path of ignorance.

Expanding on a current issue of Earth's waste scenario,every human living on this Earth has a moral responsibility to strive for a cleaner Earth.We pose regulations on humans as fines ,on industries as environment measures etc.One of the unexpected rising issues is that of Pet Defecation. This issue is spreading day by day and is often been ignored and has risen to an serious extent.It is mostly seen in animals like dogs,cats or even sometimes cows. It is understandable if some stray animals defecate in the open streets.But what's shocking to hear is that pet's are also contributing in this wastage generation. Let's go in some depth about this issue.

Pet defecation is like you have not trained your pet well or trained it too well for pooping on the street wherever it seems fit.It's as if you are encouraging your 'family member' to indulge in a crime knowingly or you are just ignorant of it. Some of the owners dont seem to care about the defecation done by their pets. They just let their pets loiter around while they themselves are doing some other work. Here also some sort of human's mental attitude plays a role.

Talking a bit about human predefined psychology and the resistant to change makes things more complicated and extreme.Even on the instruction by corporations or other citizens, some may not listen or just ignore them or do a bit of yelling at them.People are often negligent to these seemingly 'trivial' issues and if they are aware they consider it as Not Important. It shows lack of self-awareness and one's character. If there is an emergency situation where it is of utmost necessity then who will take the responsibility of cleaning the poop.If pets are as important as family members then isn't it the owner's responsibility.But the owner might be too ashamed or be disgusted or does not care as it is not his land.Here comes the all story of responsibility which was discussed.

Some 'Intelligent beings' would like to blame on corporations for not cleaning the roads or streets but what about the percentage of people who let their pets defecate in the open.Instead of considering which problem is trivial or non-trivial we should try to think ways of eradicating it first. Aside from smelly and unclean environments,even accidents happen such as slipping upon the faeces which may seem a bit funny to the watchers but is an issue to think upon.

Because of these so-called 'minor' problems, residents fail to consider some sections of the society and even abhor or detest pets and their keepers.They consider pets to be unclean and unhygienic which may be true depending upon our actions.These might also lead to conflicts between animal activist and the accused for throwing stones.But the person to be actually blamed would be the owner of the pet who would be busy letting his pet defecate other neighborhoods.

According to a study, A single gram of poop contained an estimated 23 million bacteria.It is also a carrier of many bacteria and virus.Even water sources get affected by it. A 2001 study on Four mile run, a heavily polluted stream in northern Virginia, used DNA analysis to determine that 42 percent of the controllable bacteria load in the water came from dog .Studies have also found that bacteria from poop had spread the around the area.Aside from these health implications,social factors were also witnessed. In 2015 an altercation over a pet dog defecating near some outdoor gym equipment in Delhi’s Humayunpur village led to around 30-40 men going on a killing spree, with shots being fired and some were seriously injured.

Considering the above problems,many organizations and countries have come upfront to tackle with the issue with some even implementing to a good success rate.The The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) (an international non-profit welfare organization) has encouraged the word of 'Scoop the poop' and if possible construction of residential defecation sites.Some inventions like ‘Pooper Scooper’, a stick with a device to open and close a plastic bag at one end.

Good measures have also been taken in cities like New York where it is treated like 'crime' and a ticket is issued under Pooper Scooper Law. In countries like UK, US, Italy and Spain have gone to the extent of introducing DNA testing wherein dogs swabs are put in a database and if it matches with the waste,owners face punishments.In India ,these laws are also building up slowly and many pet owners have supported this and small campaigns are going on.Social media sites like Facebook have been very helpful for garnering attention to these issues. Some cities like San Francisco are utilizing a small portion of poop in biodegradation to a fair amount.

In Taiwan’s New Taipei City, dog walkers who pick up can exchange their packets for lottery tickets. This was such a success that the scheme had to be discontinued when the city ran out of prize money.Parts of Mexico City have experimented with a system where pickers are rewarded with free WiFi minutes.So these all show that poop acquisition has risen to a big problem which has to be solved no matter what.It has become a Necessity.

In the end ,I would like to say that these campaign or rules or fines or punishments would not be necessary if one could understand the responsibility of their pets in general and not treat it like a machine or an obligation with NO consciousness.So ultimately adjusting with the change is inevitable. Of course a Positive change is a Necessity.So lets show cooperation and will in contributing in any ways to minimize this issue.

It is not the strongest of the species that survives,nor the most intelligent that survives.It is the one that is most adaptable to change.-- Charles Darwin.