People who hate street dogs often do not have the capacity to love, and hate most other people as well

It is amazing how the number of people caring for street dogs in India has increased dramatically during the last couple of decades or so. Twenty years ago, one rarely saw people feeding them or vaccinating them on the streets. Today—much to the chagrin of animal-haters—many in most parts of the country do so. One has no idea about their number. One can, however, say on the basis of visual evidence, social media posts and media reports, that the figure has grown exponentially—and this in the teeth of animal haters abusing, harassing and even assaulting them—including women.

There are several reasons for the increase in the number of such people despite daunting odds. Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) wrote in Man Meets Dog, "The whole charm of the dog lies in the depth of the friendship and the strength of the spiritual ties with which he has bound himself to man.” Lorenz should know. An Austrian zoologist, ethnologist and ornithologist, and recipient of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl Von Frisch, he is regarded as one of the founders of modern ethnology as well as the study of animal behaviour.

It almost seems that most dogs are genetically programmed to give........

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