A while ago, our friend and we were discussing the tricky problem caused by the free-ranging dogs in our village. Loose dogs, owned or not, lost dogs and abandoned dogs are legion and a real plague in the cities as well as in the smaller communities. Puzzled with all this, I decided to collect as much information as I could concerning stray, feral and wild dogs; where they live; where they come from and to look into some more philosophical subjects like animal ethics and welfare. I divided the book in four parts: The first deals with definitions and subjects of general interest including the stray dogs. The second looks into the pariah dogs and the third into the wild dogs. I’ve included as many examples of dogs, cities and countries I have found to give an idea of the extent of the problem, which is not circumscribed to our immediate neighbourhood, but which is huge and worldwide. The fourth describes animal ethics, comprising philosophical, legal and human aspects of the human-dog relationship and beyond.
