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One of the biggest problem an animal lover faces while going on a trip out of town is that wherever he or she goes we worry that we will have to face heart ache due to interacting with thin and sick animals . It spoils our mood, our trip and breaks our heart
When I was about to depart for my trip to Goa I had the same inhibitions but if I let that stop me from going out I would never have a vacation hence I steeled my guts and went on it anyways but to my great surprise except one incident , Goa proved to be a great place for animals , especially dogs.
By far and large , I saw all the dogs around north Goa to be more or less healthy and taken care of. Some of them were exceptionally loved to the point that they were sleeping inside cafes and shops and fed by their owners daily.
One of the shacks where I partied frequently was taking care of a bitch and her 5 pups and gave a whole stash of food to them at the end of a every loud night which the pups seem to care least about. Apparently Goan dogs seem to like to party as well.
Strolling around Goan streets or beach bunch of cute 4 legged dogs will keep running past you, sometimes even fighting amongst themselves which does scare some of the not so comfortable around animals people but not once did I see them show an ounce of aggression towards any human. That is simply because they are fed and loved.
Being in the line of animal welfare for over 10 years now, I can have a look at a dog and within a second and point out whether the dog is sterilised or not and 2 out of 10 dog were sterilised which for Delhi is a very poor number however for other cities is pretty good. I think only Jaipur , Bombay , Chennai , Udaipur and perhaps Gangtok also comes close to it.
However , an animal loving city state should do better to make their furry friends more sterilised for the simple reason that otherwise they are giving the animal haters fodder for their cannon. I read in their local news paper a full page anti dog manifesto on how the number of dogs in Goa have increased and people are getting bitten etc etc. The usual complaints. I shall paste the report here.
To keep such nonsense at bay and such nonsensical people shut , one must sterilise all dogs. Its good for the dogs too, the poor pups wont die under cars and in any case how many strays can dog lovers look after . After all , the basic principal of economics state that resources will always be limited and demands unlimited.
One day while walking from my hotel towards the market , I suddenly saw 5 community dogs get up and run towards an area. Knowing their behaviour well enough , I could gauge that it was not an aggressive one though one could mistake it for that. I followed the dogs to see what was happening and saw an old gentleman feeding them .
Initially he thought I was there to object and when I asked him whether I could take his photograph he replied with a certain tinge of hostility saying “you can do what you what you want” .To re assure him I told him that I thought what he was doing was wonderful and I run a blog for animals and people who love animals and hence I want to take a photo. That’s when he changed his tone and told me his name.
His name is Mr. Franchesco and he is a local of the area. He feeds around 20 dogs in and around that area every day in the morning and evening and he feels that animals are better than humans any day , a sentiment most animal lovers echo in any case . His images are also put up on this post.
That very evening I had another wonderful experience. I went off to get a drink and found a cozy little cafe. I chose the cafe for multiple reasons . One of the main reason was that on the porch of that cafe where most of the people were enjoying themselves, 2 dogs and a cat were also chilling and I thought to myself , this is my kind of place.
So I sat down and ordered a cocktail and started petting one of the dogs and soon the other one got jealous and wiggled its way into my arms and forced me to pet it too as dogs do. After a few minutes one of the foreigner gentleman who was sitting there with his lovely wife let me know their names. When I enquired how he knew them he told me he has been living there for 3 years and basically has been looking after these dogs and every evening when they come for drinks, the dogs follow them here and later go back with them.
They also mentioned that mostly all the dogs around the area have been sterilised by them at their own cost which is the most wonderful thing to do. Soon they were joined by some more foreigners and they all started to have a merry time out of which I soon realised that one of the couple was their son and his wife. We all had a merry time till it was time to go on our way and just as he said , as soon as they got up to leave so did the dogs leave after one last petting session by me.
The next day at baga beach I was walking around with a pint of beer in my hand as most people do when suddenly my eyes fell on multiple cotton balls tumbling around under the chair and umbrella of one of the life guards. Going near I saw it was puppies barely 2 weeks old and their mother relaxing close by and almost whoever was crossing by was going “awww’ or “omg tooo cute” . Most people were taking pictures with them and the mother just kept looking cautiously but not aggressively. I spoke to the guards about the puppies and they told me their names.
All of a sudden this police jeep that keeps driving around the beach to keep so called security (though I saw fights and arguments happen and they just drove past) came driving in and almost drove over the puppies. We were standing near by so barely missed running over them. The life guards stood up with anger and looked at them. I pointed at the jeep and asked with surprise “did you see how they drove?” and I was happy with their reply “whether they are the police or army , if they ran over the pups they would have had hell to pay” . Well that goes to say a lot. (pictures of the pups in the post too).
I guess ill end this post with the one bad incident that I had by a high or drunk Australian (or that’s what I am guessing he was by his accent , I could be mistaken) . So I was standing on the balcony of my hotel and I hear a serious commotion taking place. I look down and I see a bald, topless white man hurling all kind of obscenities and rocks at two community dogs which stayed around the hotel and shops.
The people of the shops and hotels were trying to reason with the man who seemed to high to realise anything. high on alcohol , drugs or high on arrogance I am not sure. I tried to keep out of it till that man picked up a rock the size of large cushion and tried to chuck at one of the dogs. I had been watching the dogs for the last three days and had seen not an ounce of aggression from their side.
At that point, I scream at that man “OI , What the hell do you think you are doing?” He had the audacity to reply back “Killing this mother F*****” . So I screamed back too ” You better not even try any such thing and I went down the stairs as fast as I could. Once I was face to face I asked him “what is your problem” and he replied ” These stupid bastards keep barking at me” . So I asked the locals as to what happened. They told me that this man was riding his bike so fast and bad that the rear wheel threw sand and mud on the dogs who were sleeping nearby so obviously the dogs got startled and started barking at him. I explained the situation to him and told him to just leave well alone and explain to him that the laws of the country does not allow him to kill any stray animal especially dogs. To which I got a very stupid reply , he said ” You think this stupid country of yours is doing right? By having such dumb wild animals running around?” That was the end of my patience and I told “If you dont like it here , pack your bags and get the fuck out. No one has tied you to this place. You are here because you want to be here. Now leave before I call this police and you will not enjoy Indian prison” . It was at that point when he got on his bike and rode off grumbling obscenities again.
That was the one and only bad experience I faced in Goa but just one bad apple does not prove anything. I found Goa to be mostly friendly and lovely both to humans and animals and I hope to go there soon again.
Hiranmay Karlekar