Lost Connection with Nature & are Dogs still Man's close companion?

This is my first time posting content online. I'm excited and hope to keep going!

Some Context

I am from in India and live in Bangalore, one of the larger cities. I write this from my perspective.

India is rapidly developing. In some respects, we are on par or have a better quality of life, than developed / first world countries. We have a large young & educated population, quickly adapt to technology and innovation, have access to information & global culture, startups getting launched every week, a lot of business opportunities, abundance of entertainment, material goods - fashion, luxury goods, other distractions of the modern world and a desire to have a better quality of life.

But we still have a dark side, problems worldwide even, caused by our greed, selfishness, ignorance and the growing expectation of society that the goal in life is to make more money, work tirelessly till you get old, buy big houses, cars and things we don’t need and having different perspectives gets us isolated / distrusted. People focus on stepping on each other and trying to one up each other in the randomest ways.

We are lost. We have stopped thinking beyond “me / my family”. We have forgotten our connection with nature - completely. Our connection with the air, ground, water and other living beings too. We continue to pollute, kill and act selfishly that further leads to poor decisions, destruction, crime / violence/rage.

In India, we also a large population that struggles financially, that gets exploited, who are uneducated and easily brainwashed by media, politics, religion and who struggle for their basic necessities like food, shelter, education, etc. We don’t care for them either and use their existence as an excuse to justify our poor actions further.

(Photo from Anil Chandran https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-standing-near-the-dogs-6571217/)

My story with dogs - The incident

I’ve personally never had a pet dog, but I grew up with a deep fascination of animals, mainly from watching Steve Irvine, the crocodile hunter. I’m glad I do not fear animals and for my interest in them.

I’ve seen most kids however have this innate fear of dogs. Their parents are even more afraid. Not just of dogs - but birds, trees, rats, insects, spiders, snakes, cats, humans, everything - without even having to see or interact with them, spending their days in cubicles, watching Netflix and living with the best comforts in their bubble of a home.

2-3 years ago, during the pandemic, I was driving to the nearby grocery store. I noticed a man, in his 40s or 50s, throwing stones at 7-8 dogs, around 12 noon in public. No one seemed to care, my heart started racing. I instinctively braked, got off the car and walked back to confront this man, who by the time I reached the spot, was now seated comfortably with the Aircon on, in his 25000 USD, red SUV. I remained calm and asked him why he attacked the dogs? This upset him and he tried to attack me with a rage instantly. We scrapped. I picked up some stones, threatening to pelt him. Showing him, he was no different from the dogs. He has the same life and could bleed, feel pain, die. A crowd gathered quickly and separated us before any serious damage was done.

I don’t know if this incident brought any change to this man. I am hopeful but know this is unlikely. It’s difficult to change people, especially once they become adults - they start closing off the world around them and think they know everything now. This incident deeply disturbed me and maybe that’s why this is my first post.

If man and dog where to co-exist peacefully in our local communities, would we not have safer streets and more peace? Less crimes or at least fear in the minds in those, who intend to do harm to others? We’ve seen it in movies and maybe in our day-to-day experiences, that dogs have an innate instinct to protect those they care about. Dogs in my experience, even ones on the street that are starved, are pretty harmless, unless they carry some trauma or unless you show fear or aggression. Look after the dog once, show it love, and it will forever be grateful. Dogs and all other animals I think can also sense those who are pure of heart and that why they seem to understand kids. We have a strong mental connection, that’s nonverbal with animals, that can help us understand each other (especially dogs / cats / domesticated animals)

Let us lose our fear of dogs and animals. Treat them with the love and respect they deserve, like you would any other human you know. Teach our kids to be truthful, confident and not be afraid. Think of animals in your neighborhood as part of your community and provide shelter, food and nurse the animals in need. Understand a bit of how they behave - maybe they hunt, get into fights (like cats do) and bark / howl/etc. That is their nature and how they were designed. Can we not be live in harmony accepting this?

I believe we need to build our connection with nature again and our lives would be more peaceful (for all living things), leading to an environment of love & respect and creating safer place for us all. If we are really on top of the food chain, let us choose nurturing and preservation over destruction.

What are your thoughts on this? How do you see animals treated in your neighborhood?