On March 2, as believers in astrology know, Saturn entered a retrograde zone, a dreaded time that, according to one website, makes "us insecure and unable to accurately assess what can realistically be expected in any situation". This period of shani vakri, as it is known in India, began to have an effect on Abodh Aras, the chief executive officer of Mumbai-based non-profit adoption agency Welfare of Street Dogs.
“We have been getting requests to adopt black pups for several months,” said Aras.
Soon enough, Aras and his colleagues discovered that such calls were coming from superstitious families who want black dogs to ward off Saturn's malevolent spell. While black cats are considered bad luck everywhere, Indian astrologers say black dogs have the opposite effect.
During shani vakri, which will last until July 21, astrologers across India routinely advise clients to feed jet black dogs to counteract Saturn's ill effects.
When Aras realised the reason for the requests, he refused to entertain them. “As an animal welfare organisation, we simply cannot encourage such motives behind adoptions,” he said.
Other canine adoption agencies across the country are also unsympathetic to superstitious clients. Their primary concern is that the pet is likely to be abandoned once the inauspicious period has passed and the family no longer has use for the dog.
This fear is certainly not unfounded. “The general requirement is to feed black dogs whenever one spots them, not necessarily adopt them,” said Pandit Vivek Khasnis, an astrologer who claims to have been practicing his craft in Mumbai for the past 16 years. “The dogs are likely to be kept and fed just for a few days, after that they are let go.”
According to Geeta Seshamani, vice president of Delhi-based animal organisation Friendicoes, requests for black dogs are very common in the capital city, but only about one in 20 such clients turns out to be a genuine dog lover. “We typically try to explain to people that superstition is simply not a good reason to take home a pet,” said Seshamani.
Ironically, in the West, black dogs tend to be the last ones to be adopted at shelters and agencies, because of a controversial preference for lighter-coloured dogs. One of the most common stereotypes about dark fur is that those dogs are more violent and badly behaved. In fact, the trend is so acute in the Western countries that it has been named as the Black dog syndrome.
Superstition or stereotype, it’s a no-win situation in the life of a black dog.
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“We have been getting requests to adopt black pups for several months,” said Aras.
Soon enough, Aras and his colleagues discovered that such calls were coming from superstitious families who want black dogs to ward off Saturn's malevolent spell. While black cats are considered bad luck everywhere, Indian astrologers say black dogs have the opposite effect.
During shani vakri, which will last until July 21, astrologers across India routinely advise clients to feed jet black dogs to counteract Saturn's ill effects.
When Aras realised the reason for the requests, he refused to entertain them. “As an animal welfare organisation, we simply cannot encourage such motives behind adoptions,” he said.
Other canine adoption agencies across the country are also unsympathetic to superstitious clients. Their primary concern is that the pet is likely to be abandoned once the inauspicious period has passed and the family no longer has use for the dog.
This fear is certainly not unfounded. “The general requirement is to feed black dogs whenever one spots them, not necessarily adopt them,” said Pandit Vivek Khasnis, an astrologer who claims to have been practicing his craft in Mumbai for the past 16 years. “The dogs are likely to be kept and fed just for a few days, after that they are let go.”
According to Geeta Seshamani, vice president of Delhi-based animal organisation Friendicoes, requests for black dogs are very common in the capital city, but only about one in 20 such clients turns out to be a genuine dog lover. “We typically try to explain to people that superstition is simply not a good reason to take home a pet,” said Seshamani.
Ironically, in the West, black dogs tend to be the last ones to be adopted at shelters and agencies, because of a controversial preference for lighter-coloured dogs. One of the most common stereotypes about dark fur is that those dogs are more violent and badly behaved. In fact, the trend is so acute in the Western countries that it has been named as the Black dog syndrome.
Superstition or stereotype, it’s a no-win situation in the life of a black dog.
