A binding tale of dogs, humans and a virus

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Picture Courtesy: Swagatama Mukherjee


Modeled after a soldier’s canvas gown, the image of the Plague doctor, from 17th Century France & Italy comes to mind during a discourse on fatal zoonotic diseases— a wisp of a shadow of the true carnage caused by elusive microscopic viruses and their infected hosts. Many zoonotic diseases have notoriously plagued and infected various humans and animals since decades. Zoonotic Influenza, Plague, Lyme disease and many more have individually recorded high mortality rates contributing to a sense of paranoia and general fear of stray animals especially bovines, rodents, stray felines and canines. A perspicuous paranoia and fear, keeping us on our toes so as to not contract a possibly deadly disease but often resulting in forming a warped outlook towards these very animals by viewing them all as vicious and feral is something we are familiar with as a society. A very common occurrence of this thought can be seen in the case of dogs who are continuously misconstrued as savages, rabid and feral animals— an often-unfounded logic seen in most cases of mistreatment of dogs, their abandonments and even gruesome deaths. 


To read the full article featured by World Animal Protection, click on this link!

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