Hello, my name is Sonali and I am 10 years old. For my exhibition I had chosen the topic of stray dogs.
Why I chose this topic and my other things like my central idea and other things-
I was inquiring into stray dogs. The reason why I chose to inquire into stray dogs was because I am very passionate about dogs and I love them a lot. Whenever I saw them on the roads I felt really sad and I wanted to do more for them but all I could do was feed them. I wanted to know more ways to help them.
So as part of that my central idea was ‘Human activities affect the welfare of animals’ the reason why this connects to stray dogs is because nobody took action of helping stray dogs earlier and now it has become worse now, and everyone wants to help them now when it they could have stopped the problem so much more earlier.
My lines of inquiry are (I am also mentioning the key concepts)-
- What are stray dogs (Form)
- What organisations help them (Causation)
- What can I or you do to help them (Responsibility)
My transdisciplinary theme is from the unit Sharing the planet and the theme is ‘An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things;
My Approaches To Learning or ATLs were:
Research skills and I used this obviously when I was researching in my preliminary document. The second one was Communication skills. I performed this skill when I was telling my mentor (Ms. Devaki) all the things that I had to do for the meeting and when she was helping me decide things. The last one was self-management skills. The reason why this was important was because I have to finish everything in a time period and if I did not then I would have an unfinished presentation.
My UN goal that I had chosen was goal No. 15, Life on land. The reason why I chose this this one was because the problem is on land and has not got much to do with other problems.
Here is some of the information I got-
Why do stray dogs exist?
Most free roaming or also called stray dogs originate from a very old and ancient canine race called Pariah dog. This race has been living for about 14,000 year or possibly more. It is also mainly found in Asia and Africa. They are also mainly scavengers. Some may be scavengers but many others pets of slum households.
Many of the street dogs that you see are either mongrels or mix breed dogs that have been bred from a pure breed dog that was allowed to be interbred with a pariah dog.
Some of them are also abandoned. There are many reasons why people abandon their dogs.
- Behavioural issue
This is the most common reason why dogs are abandoned. These issues can range from aggression to easy things like not being trained properly Having bathroom accidents, they are destructive, they bark and or cry too much and sometimes don’t get along with unfamiliar people. Most of these problems are fixable and if the owner is committed to helping their dog then the issue will be cleared very easily.
- Moving
Many people say that they were moving and that was the reason they were abandoning the dog. But a pet expert Lisa Towell wrote in her article (‘Why people abandon their dogs’) that research has said that half of the people who said they are abandoning their dog because of moving also reported behavioural issues so it proves that behavioural are the main and primary issue and moving was just the secondary issues and therefore forces them to abandon their dog.
- The new landlord does not allow dogs
When you say that moving is a common reason why people abandon their dogs, it should make sense that the owner rents a place. She or he should know that the landlord would allow pets or not. They should consider this fact before they adopt or buy a dog. In some cases where the owner is not thoughtful about this when they find out that they are not allowed to have a dog they have to give the dog up.
- Owner has not more time for the dog
If a person has no time or does not want to give much time to care for their dog, they should not adopt a dog. In scenarios where the owner does not pay much attention to the dog the dog could often become destructive and depressed, which causes the owner to let go of the dog. Research has said that this is the second most common reason why people let go of their dogs.
- Dog has an illness
This could be because of the owner not having enough money or the owner just not caring about their dog anymore or they do not have enough time to care for their dog. Michelson Found Animals Foundation reports that illness is a common reason for abandonment even though this is a time when their dog needs them the most.
There are some other reasons why I will not tell you about it for now.
My personal action-
My personal action was going to be to feed stray dogs and spread awareness about them but due to the corona virus lockdown I am not allowed to leave the house. These actions would not have made the biggest difference but for example feeding them would have made the difference of maybe saving a dog from starvation. And when you spread awareness you enable more people to start helping them and as I am only young I cannot do such things as vaccinations and neutering but I can encourage people who can.