TOP 6 TERROR ORGANIZATIONS IN THE WORLD

 FEEDING STRAY DOGS AND CATS

“Sharing is caring”. This old famous saying has been such an integral part of our lives. As children, experiencing the excitement of opening your lunchbox to share with fellow classmates, was a big part of our school days. And as adults, organizing a potluck is a great way to socialize. Extending this hand of care to those in need is an act of compassion – one that is an innate human tendency.

However, very often we don’t extend this compassion to our furry friends, dogs unless they’re domesticated pets. Strays are left to scavenge for anything they can get their paws on; it’s a struggle for survival and they often resort to subsisting on scraps, fighting each other for a share. While they may have a strong resistance to diseases, there are still high chances of strays being injured or being emaciated as only the fittest survive and manage to feed themselves. 

When we as dog and cat lovers come together and extend a feeding hand to our furry friends, we can help improve the quality of their lives and eventually alleviate the rising concerns of strays turning aggressive in the search for food. 

Responsible Feeding Practices 

Educate yourself about the rights of stray cats and dogs: Please read through hundreds of articles that is available on the internet. Also, read about common medical issues that you may encounter with stray dogs and ways to treat them safely and effectively.

Use biodegradable/disposable cutlery: Since you’ll be carrying huge amounts of food, it’s a good idea to have disposable plates to serve the stray dogs. When the feeding is done, make sure to dispose of the cutlery neatly in the nearest trash can.  If you don’t have this, use newspaper pieces and ensure you pick them up in a trash bag once the dogs and cats have eaten and dispersed. 

Pick a feeding spot: The survival instincts in stray dogs help them develop a keen sense of understanding where and when to go in order to gain access to food. By picking a safe spot that is fairly away from the daily commute of your neighborhood, you can ensure a safer and undisturbed feeding routine

Set a feeding time and be consistent: When you start feeding stray dogs in your community, you take up the huge responsibility of making sure these animals are kept in the best of health conditions. Make sure you do not make the stray dog dependent on you for food. So do not overfeed or feed too many times in a day. Stick to a routine and follow it. Stray dogs have to scavenge for their food and the idea of feeding stray dogs is to make them friendly so they are easy to catch for spay/neuter operations, easy to handle when they are sick or injured and also for the yearly anti-rabies vaccination. Set a feeding time, preferably before 7 o’clock in the morning or after 5 o’clock in the evening and make sure you are where you need to be every day. Breaking the routine could be disastrous, as the stray dogs will keep waiting for you not knowing that you won’t be available. Make sure you pair up with a family member or friend for feeding so that if you can’t feed the dog due to work or illness, someone else will be able to manage your responsibility.

Do not pet stray dogs and cats: While you are feeding stray dogs and cats, remember to not treat them like pet. Firstly you won’t take them all home and they may not all get adopted. So for them their life is going to be on the streets and they need to know that it is good to maintain distance from people as not all people like dogs. If you make a dog overly friendly with yourself, the dog may go and jump on an unsuspecting person looking for affection and may end up scaring that person if that person does not like dogs! In turn the dog can get kicked, beaten, etc. So to avoid such issues, it is best to not pet stray dogs or make them overly friendly like pet dogs. Maintain a good distance from them. Feed them and walk away. Do not whistle for the dogs to come when you bring food! This is a terrible habit that many stray dog feeders have. The dogs associate the whistle to food time and rush from across the road when they hear it. This leads to accidents and deaths. So please leave food for the dogs silently in a designated area. If they are not there, they will surely come due to the smell of the food. Treat stray dogs in a way which makes them confident and smart to survive on the streets. Do not make them dependent on you in any way. 

Avoid feeding two packs of stray dogs at once: Dogs can be very territorial in nature, and that especially extends to a pack of stray dogs who tend to settle in a locality they find suitable to rest in. If you are out for a feeding drive, make sure you pick a spot that is very specific to one particular pack of stray dogs. Feeding a pack too close to another one might lead to unwanted aggressive confrontations between the two packs.