There has been a recent spike in incidents involving dogs biting strangers and strays behaving aggressively that have left people wary. Rajesh Tailang found out the authorities are planning on building pounds around the country. As an animal lover, the actor doesn’t agree with this idea and took to Instagram to appeal against it.

“I am a dog lover. In fact, I love animals. If I see an issue that is related to them, I try to use my voice to create awareness for them,” he says.

The actor’s friend, who is an animal activist, informed Tailang about this impending plan. While the 52-year-old isn’t sure if this plan is already in motion, he believes it is “good to talk about it before it actually starts happening, so that it can be stopped [in time]”.

He adds, “The solution [to the rising violent incidents with dogs] isn’t to keep them in captivity. Kab tak rakhenge? It is just not practical.”

In India, on a previous occasion, in order to curb the population of monkeys, people who spotted and caught the animals were given monetary compensation. Citing the example, the Dahan (2022) actor says, “I’m making a documentary on monkeys and as far as I know, this scheme wasn’t successful. Iss tarah ka tareeka kaamyaab hoga bhi nahin. There was a lot of money invested in the vaccination and birth control of dogs, but their population is still increasing. Dogs have always been living with humans and since they are not used to living separately from humans, they might get aggressive [in captivity].”