PETS NOT ALLOWED

A few days ago I had gone for some errand to another sector of our locality. Just before I reached my destination I passed a housing society which had displayed a notice board saying “ Pets are not allowed”. I felt tinge of unhappiness over this as there are many persons who love to keep pets and putting such restriction seemed to be denying them of such simple pleasure of having company of a faithful pet. It has been stated time and again that pets do contribute to health of a person, physical and emotional. There are some persons who do need this kind of emotional support. I could not get this out of my mind. I do know that some persons are very fussy about mess created by pets, specially dogs, in a residential complex but there is a very simple solution to that. Hold owner of the pet responsible for keeping the place poop free. This has been effectively enforced in many cities in Europe and even some places in India too. But to deny entry of pets seemed a little too high handed. What about population of stray animals or even birds? Don’t they too mess up? No one makes an effort to control that menace as it is next to impossible. Then why make pets scapegoats? So the viable solution is to make the owner of pet responsible to ensure pet does not mess up the area. Of course it goes without saying that owner also has to ensure that pet is not threat to other residents.

Later while I was crossing that area again I was surprised to see a spectacle. There were about 20 dogs sitting in a semi circle in front of that complex. One medium sized dog was standing facing them as if addressing a gathering. I was surprised to see that there were many dogs with broken leashes in that gathering of mainly stray ones. I saw a group of about 10 cats approaching. I was prepared to see a fight between dogs and cats but to my astonishment I heard the lead dog say “ Let us welcome our cat sisters to this gathering.” The cats sat down on one side and that is when I saw some rabbits too sitting under a tree close by while a few white mice too were with them. On the small trees in the vicinity I saw parrots, pigeons and some more species of exotic birds which are not there normally. I stood transfixed listening to what lead dog was saying.

The topic under discussion was that notice board. Gist of talk against that unfriendly notice was that is their doing poop bigger sin than what those who claim to be at the top rung of the living beings do - namely killings of unarmed innocent person in the name of religion, molesting their female species, killing female foetus, burning of brides, thefts from funds meant for well being of their own needy, causing damage to individuals or property for silly small reasons, cheating, fights because of trivial issues and the list went on & on. Why can they not use their energies for positive acts to overcome their shortcomings instead of wasting efforts on banning us? I started applauding the sensible talk when I felt a nudge on my side. I saw my wife shaking me saying “ Why are you saying Bravo Bravo in your sleep?”