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| Crushed glucose biscuits--a meal? |
It's easy to observe them. They're restful and sedentary. Their life revolves around two bowls: one for glucose biscuits and one for water. You will never find them chasing cats or even crossing the road.
Let's say you have a balloon. You blow it hard and voila! It looks like a dog. The narrowest parts being the muzzle and tail. That's the best description of a dog that falls into this special category my daughter calls, 'Bakery Dogs.'
Overfed, listless and always sleepy, these dogs have 'kind' people emptying packets of these sweet, cheap, biscuits into the bowl, outside a bakery near my house.
The dogs cannot refuse the biscuits. They probably enjoy the tasty treat. They don't know sugar is bad for them. But ask anyone who owns a dog, they'll tell you.
The same story repeats in Lalbagh. But here the biscuits are a treat, not a meal, and the dogs seem healthy and alert.
I've seen 'kind' people like this. They'll force food--ghee, sweets, nuts etc., on their hapless 'dear' ones.
One lady was affronted when I asked her why she gives a regular supply of homemade ghee to her close relative. Wasn't that encouraging the already overweight elderly woman towards heart problems?
Her defiant reply: "If I don't give it to her, she'll buy ghee and use it. So it's better she uses the homemade one."
Now this 'kind' lady keeps a strict watch on what she herself eats, and follows a fitness regimen. Yet, she walks around with this false sense of altruism that she's doing the right thing by supplying her relative with ghee.
If you tell the people near the bakery to stop feeding the dogs, they'll look at you like you're asking them to whip the dog.
"Poor dogs, if we don't give them, who will? They aren't complaining. They enjoy it, see. And they're alive aren't they?"
Is that what we want to do, with homo sapiens or canines, just keep them alive because they aren't capable of deciding for themselves?
"Health be damned, stay alive," command these misguided 'kindhearted' souls.
