Hyderabad: Stray dogs are regularly outsmarting Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) dog catching squads. As soon as they get a whiff of the squads, they disappear into the bylanes, even the puppies are not found. The staff thus returns empty-handed after taking the signatures of the complainants.
Many experts say that the month of October to December is the second breeding season and the stray dog population will increase if the Animal Birth Control programme is not implemented properly by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
Veterinary doctor Kadambari Venkatraman said, “Dogs have Pavlovian reflexes, which are learnt behaviours. Seeing the van itself is a powerful visual reflex. Also, animals in distress secrete adrenalin and pheromones, which other animals can smell. The ropes and nets used to catch dogs have this smell.
This is a powerful olfactory (smell) reflex so animals have both a visual trigger and the olfactory trigger, which is why they escape.”
Dr Purnima Nagaraja, director of clinical services at a city’s psychiatric care unit, said, “Animal are highly instinctual, their senses are more developed than humans. Also, the quality of barking of other dogs is a signal of danger.
Besides animals can smell the sweat on the municipal workers who are themselves geared up for a fight and chase; in this case, dogs are much smarter than humans because of their highly developed sense of danger or threat of life.”
