Tejas and team rescued 4 Rottweilers in a month

HYDERABAD: If you can’t handle a Rottweiler and its brute strength, don’t get one as a pet. This is what animal activists are telling residents in Hyderabad after coming across a string of instances in the past few months where these ferocious dogs have been abandoned by their owners in the middle of the city.In most cases, the owners couldn’t handle the animals as the pups got bigger, stronger and, in some cases, more aggressive.About a fortnight ago, T Naveena of Compassionate Society for Animals (CSA) came across a strange sight – two Rottweilers chained to two different metro pillars about 15 metres from each other in Hyderabad’s busy Lingampally area. The owner would occasionally come to feed the animals. When Naveena confronted the man, he refused to take the dogs home saying they were too aggressive.Both dogs were in poor shape after being left out in the open for long and being fed scraps. “It was too late by the time we received information,” Naveena says. “We could save only one of them which is also very unhealthy.”About 10 days ago activists received a barrage of calls after a Rottweiler started chasing pedestrians around Uma Nagar colony in the city’s Begumpet area, triggering panic. Volunteers captured the dog from the IAS colony lane.“The dog might have been abandoned,” says P Teja, an activist. “Rottweilers are very active dogs. They need a large area to run around in and exert themselves. We are trying to find a new owner who knows how to look after Rottweilers, but it is a tough ask.”Teja and his team have rescued four Rottweilers from different parts of the city in just one month.Among the original herding breeds, Rottweilers were used in Europe to pull carts with butchered meat to be carried to the market. Known to be caring by nature, they can also be territorial and can fiercely defend what they perceive as home and family.Shirin Merchant, a professional canine behaviourist, says, “Rottweilers were bred to have a certain amount of a guarding instinct and they do not like to share anything that they think belongs to them. If this behaviour is not dealt with at an early age, it becomes very difficult to handle them later.”She adds, “They are dominant dogs, not only towards other pets in the house, but towards their owners as well, if they are not trained. These are the main reasons why we find so many Rottweilers being abandoned.”Only last week, animal activists rescued a Rottweiler from Sainikpuri in Secunderabad. Volunteers got numerous complaints from locals who found the dog chained in front of a shop and snapping at passers-by.In another incident, Pradeep Yarra, an animal activist, rushed to Lakdi-Ka-Pul after he received a WhatsApp picture of an abandoned Rottweiler. “The dog was starving for days,” he says. “It was dehydrated and anaemic.”In Ashok Nagar area at Musheerabad, activists found two men breeding Rottweilers by the roadside. “We received information from animal lovers. We made one of them wear a muzzle as it was very aggressive,” says Teja.