Popular food delivery app asking you to put your lost pet on their radar! Pets are big business in India. And business is booming. “Newly launched’ small animal hospital in the city for pet parents, never mind that we’ve had one in the city of Mumbai for over 100 years. Vacation rental properties have taken note and now have dedicated pet inclusive holidays.
Renew, rebrand and reinvent. All of human history with our trusted companion animals by our side have been through gargantuan changes. But something is changing, the lines are blurring. As guardians of our companion animals we are responsible for their physical and emotional welfare.
So when we anthropomorphize companion animals and foist a purely human experience on them, how do we know when to draw the line?
Pet saviours and services burgeon in the form of groomers, walkers, stylists, nutritionists ….
..what are the good, the bad and the ugly side of Pet Spotters & Saviours ?
Pet families and guardians know the anguish of loosing a companion animal. The spike in interest in pet ownership in an urban environment means there is a huge need for education. Before we push the virtues of adoption and the fairy tale of pet parenting- let’s focus on the foundation. Dogs are hard work. Puppies are an insane amount of work. Which is why and how an industry responds with services dedicated to out sourced pet care.
Lost or stolen pets ?
Education for Pet Parents
How do we help a families and individuals understand the pitfalls of pet care far out weigh the happy funny Instagrammable moments? By playing “bad guy” and helping them look beyond the euphoria.
“Fetching more than just your food”
Swiggy
Swiggy we love the concept. How does this become a reality? how do your delivery partners distinguish between subtle differences of lost and free roaming dogs. Community dogs (our beloved Indian Pariah) have the ability to look uncannily like clones of each other! Years of working in rescue, pre app world and horror or horrors pre cell phone world- dog people will testify to the fact that ‘brown dog’ is an infuriatingly insufficient description.
We’re not canine behaviourists or trainers but know for a certainty lost/ stolen dogs are in a heightened state of emotional distress. Urban jungles are no places for dogs and are a nightmare for a lost animal trying desperately to rely on its sense of smell to find its way home. All is unfamiliar and deafening loud.
Over enthusiastic pet spotters ? How will that work?
Let’s present this scenario- an over enthusiastic and well meaning delivery partner thinks they’ve spotted a dog or cat reported as lost on the app.
In an effort to update the location they take off in hot (pun intended) pursuit of the dog. Now we have dog and delivery partner weaving through traffic and chaos ensues. (We’re pessimistically optimistic this never happens)
Scenario 2
Pawlice Partnerwho is unfamiliar with dog body language and behaviour attempts in all good faith to secure a lost dog (lets call him Paws). Paws bites Pawlice. Now we have an injured human and Paws likely attacked by passers by. More noise chaos and confusion, Paws is on the run again.
Scenario 3
Ideal lost and found, Pawlice spots lost Paws and all are reunited with a fairy tale ending. After personally loosing dogs whom were never found, no one any where would knock the idea of a service to help reunite lost pets and families.
