The Dog Whisperer

Cesar Millan is a tough guy, but the idea of euthanasia makes him cry

IT’S BEEN SAID the moral progress of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. While there’s debate now over who said that, there’s no ambiguity that healthy young dogs are being euthanised as a measure to control the canine population in many countries, ours included. Some cite social issues, the dangers of rabies and various other public nuisance reasons. When you get down to it, we simply consider our own immediate needs well above other creatures who share the same living space as us, canine or others.

“In my country, a few million dogs are put down every year. It’s almost like genocide. While it’s illegal to let them go on the street, it’s legal to take them to the shelter where they can be euthanised. How do you fix that?” laments Cesar Millan.

Millan, or as the world knows him, the

Dog Whisperer, has spent a large part of his life around dogs and developed a deep understanding of the canine lingua franca. That’s why he’s incredibly frustrated with the nominal systems in place for stray animals. Add the lack of a government support system for shelters that provide for them and you can understand his frustration at this hot-button topic of putting down animals.

The call to adopt a dog is a good thing. It helps stop those unscrupulous puppy mills that encourage impulse buying and collecting special breeds. But it still doesn’t stop dogs being put down. “People can adopt a dog, but once they have a problem with it, and don’t want to deal with it, they take it to the shelter,” Millan explains. “There is money to kill, but there’s no money put aside to educate, to solve the problem. It’s sad. People have all sorts of excuses and rationalisations. So I’m not here to teach people how to train dogs. I’m here to train humans how to be with dogs. I want to change people.”

For many of us, the idea of putting animals on an equal footing with people can be a difficult one, and also a white collar problem at that. If you’re busy putting food on the table and worrying about how to pay off the bills, you’re unlikely to be concerned with the stray dog or cat that’s living in the neighbourhood.

It’s primarily parents who want to pamper their children, couples who want to share something together but aren’t prepared to have kids, or singles who want companionship but aren’t prepared for the work involved in owning a pet. And once the shine wears off, they want out. Irresponsibility and the fear of commitment are the bulk of the reason why shelters are overwhelmed with animals and thus the need to put them down.

Animals are very much like infants in that they speak a language no one really understands and tend to react in a loud and repetitive voice. Just like infants learn from their parents by osmosis, pets also learn from their owners, very often picking up on nuances of body language we aren’t even aware of. The result then is an animal acting out because it is reacting to the owner’s moods. In that sense, Millan is absolutely right in pointing out that it’s not only our pets who have to adjust to us, but also us ‒ we have to learn how to co-exist with them.