dogs i even walked around at 2 am during the nights we were shooting in fort kochi while i saw lots of dogs they were terrified and hiding most of the time i did not find a single ferocious dog only few dogs had the courage to play with me because many have been caught and killed in the recent times do you feel there is an inherent fearhatred among malayalis when it comes to strays what could be the reason for this in your experiencenot at all i believe malayalis have not been given enough information or the right information to form the correct understanding understanding is like a light that shines chasing away darknesswhat can be done to change this perception among people the children also seem to hate strays inculcated lessons from the adults how can we change things at least for the next generationto change this perception people need to discuss and listen from a trusted source they need to believe someone is taking care of their safety fear can make people do terrible thingsif you ever had a dog at home you will understand how it can guard your home and surroundings and protect you it will give its life for your safety we are simply harnessing this protective and loyal nature of the dog to protect our streets it takes wisdom and patience to understand this we can change perceptions by holding respectful discussions and introducing the concept of using the dogs to protect us from outside dogsone community willing to try the concept can share their success that is how we did it in hyderabad initially we had much resistance just like you are seeing today one by one small trials by hutments colonies and markets were accepted they could not believe how we could so easily befriend local dogs and play with them they had never noticed these dogs we played with the dogs and petted them took them for sterilisation and vaccination and brought them back these areas stopped reporting dog bites while other areas continued to be exposed to dog bites people shared their stories and slowly the shift happened the municipality themselves realised the danger of killing dogswhat would your advice be to malayalis regarding the stray dog issuei love kerala and when i was shooting for my recent film there i really enjoyed my stay it is so beautiful people so friendly and the food delicious to every person i spoke to who expressed fear and used the words stray dog problem i was able to explain the issue of solid waste management and change their understanding to the truth about a human waste driven issue that breeds stray dogs hence it needs a long term human intervention to solve the problem it cannot be a hasty one that creates more problems like dog killing is doing all around kerala please give animal birth control and antirabies vaccination programmes abcarv a trial if done by a trustworthy