Cycling...and dogs

[deponti]

On the cycling group that I belong to, we've been having a big debate about cycling...and dogs...rather the menace that many cyclists face from dogs. Though some of us were only advocating getting stray dogs in the city neutered, several people thought we were advocating killing the dogs, and reacted heatedly, saying that dogs have as much right to

Comments

[prashanthchengi]

I've had my share of woes with aggressive packs of dogs which literally seem to want to hunt and bring you down. They can run at speeds up to 50 kilometres per hour, which is quite a lot when you consider that many Indian roads don't allow you to ride at speeds higher than that, to ensure a clean getaway. A pack of dogs once brought me down from my bike. It had been raining for sometime which meant that the roads were slick. A pack of around eight to nine dogs ganged up on me and I skidded off the road and sustained a fall, trying to outrun them. I think a couple of those dogs really wanted to sink their teeth into my flesh, but I was fortunate that day, for a good Samaritan was nearby and he had a good throwing arm and access to stones. I totally agree with the person who said that aggressive dogs have to be put down. There have been occasions when I've stayed at my office the whole night only because I believed that it would be too dangerous to go home at an hour when the dogs would be all over the streets. I'm seriously

[deponti]

Ha, ha....I have to agree, after two lots of anti-rabies shots.

[prashanthchengi]

I wonder if Maneka Gandhi is honest enough to admit that it's cruelty to animals if animals (rabid or otherwise) are locked up with people the likes of her!

[deponti]

Now that's a nice twist :)

[pondhopper]

Goodness. That sounds dangerous.
:(
Spain has been mostly cleaned up of its packs of street dogs although the rescues exist now and thats where I got my Tito. He was an abandoned puppy who could well have become a street dog.

Dogs will go after a moving person on a bike because they interpret that movement as a too rapid incursion into their territory. That's doggie-speak for "don't charge at me like that or I'll charge you" (even if the charging is going past the dog). They develop a habit of running after moving cars and other vehicles.

[deponti]

I understand why they do it, but it doesn't help my palpitating heart one bit when they set off behind my cycle!

[pondhopper]

Nor does it stop my panic!

[asakiyume]

How dreadful! And a fact of life for you that I wouldn't have even imagined.

One of my terrors from childhood has been rabies. I've always been afraid of being bitten by a rabid animal. The thought of having to go through the rabies shots **twice**---wow, how awful (but how much better than rabies!)

A friend of mine who had to get the shots here said that nowadays it's a set of three shots in the arm (in my childhood, the scare story was something like 25 shots in the stomach--that may have been childhood exaggeration, though).

[deponti]

Well...I had to have a set of 12 shots in the stomach the first time, and the second time :((((((and it was expensive, too.

Bear spray

[dakini_bones]

Its a little hand held canister of pepper spray...and boy it will seriously change their attitude quick!
Doesn't kill them, doesn't really harm them, but it really, really hurts for awhile!

Re: Bear spray

[deponti]

I've once experienced it..no, I'll never be able to spray it into any other creature's face!

[prashanthchengi]

I wouldn't mind 'testing' the bear spray on Maneka. Dogs on streets are a menace and I don't see how a neutered dog is going to be less of a menace. It's not as if they mistake me for a bitch in heat when they charge at me, so I assume they would continue to charge at me, neutered or not.

[deponti]

Ga, you make me LAUGH. The image of you as a bitch in heat...totally convulsed and you have to pay the doctor's bill for the stitch in my side!

[prashanthchengi]

:)

[deponti]

Well, the menace of these "chargers" would be at least limited to this particular generation, if they were all neutered!