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I and my family moved into our new home a couple of months back. It is a gated community with controlled entry and exits. The society is quite big with families living in about twenty apartments and a dozen more under various stages of construction.
As the society has a good amount of free space, many people go out for an evening or morning stroll. Quite a few of these take their pet dogs too with them during the walk. I was actually surprised and appalled to see that the owners of these dogs let them urinate and even defecate in the society premises itself, and that they do so regularly. Thus there are dozens of pet dogs which defecate in the society on a daily basis. Because there are still parts of society under construction, some stray dogs too stay in those parts and it will be reasonable to assume that they too relieve themselves in the society only. The compounded effect of these things is an increasing amount of filth in the society.

Causes of the Problem

While they train their dogs not to excrete in their homes, they let them do so anywhere else in the society. The most fundamental reason that gives rise to this problem is the very narrow definition of ‘Home’ as perceived by these people. With all due respect to them, I believe they regard home as only the territory which is personally and solely owned by them. Thus they don’t seem to care much about the beauty or cleanliness of the rest of the society which doesn’t belongs to them exclusively. By the same argument, it can also be said that they think of the rest of our country likewise only.
Being completely fair to them, it is also true that there is no such place in the vicinity of the society where these dogs can be allowed to defecate, except for open roads. So the dog owners find it a lot convenient to let their dogs excrete in the society itself. I believe this is something which the owners of these dogs should have thought of before sheltering a pet in their homes.

With some stray dogs living in the society which too defecate here and the construction material lying around in the part of the society where construction is going on, it provides an excuse to the pet owners to damage the beauty and hygiene of the society.

Suggested Solutions
I remember reading an article in The Hindu where a man described an instance which he came across in a foreign country. A girl was out on a stroll with her pet dog during the evening time. The dog defecated on the pavement and the girl let her do so. But then she collected the faeces in a plastic bag with the help of a small shovel, both of which she was carrying in her bag. This is what it should be like. The proper disposal of the faeces of your pet is also your responsibility, and you should not be using the society premises or any public place to dump it.

The society has a lot of open and free space. Considering that there are many dog owners in the society, a small section can be allocated to them for building a specialized toilet for the dogs and an adjoining facility for its collection and disposal. If the owners are not going to pick up the faeces from the ground, this seems to be the only solution.

This story was submitted to The Logical Indian by Gaurav Shukla . You too can share your story with us at [email protected]