On a humid evening in Bengaluru, a brown, wiry dog curls up beside the gate of an apartment complex. He is neither rare nor remarkable in the way pedigree dogs are often described.
Yet, over weeks, residents begin to notice the way he waits for children returning from school, how he follows the watchman on his nightly rounds, how he has learnt to fetch the old lady’s bag when she comes back from the market.
For millions of India’s street animals, this is where the story usually ends.
Official data from India
India has an estimated 62 million free-roaming dogs, one of the largest such populations globally. In cities like Delhi alone, there are roughly one million stray dogs, but fewer than 20 facilities available to house them, highlighting the scale of the challenge.
The latest official estimate also suggests that India is home to around 9.1 million stray cats.
A culture of choice
India is home to one of the world’s largest populations of stray animals. Every day, millions of dogs and cats navigate streets, construction sites, and marketplaces, often relying on scraps and sporadic human kindness.
Organisations like the Worldwide Veterinary Service have long pointed to a cycle that begins far from the street. Backyard breeders and unregulated puppy farms continue to supply a steady demand for pedigree animals. Many of these facilities operate in poor conditions, where animals are bred repeatedly with little regard for their health.
Adoption disrupts this cycle.
By bringing home an indie dog or a rescued animal, families are stepping out of a supply chain that often prioritises profit over welfare.
Many people may prefer pedigree dogs, and personal choice in itself isn’t the issue; the real concern lies in the ethics behind how these animals are bred and sourced.
Despite growing demand, ethical breeding in India remains unregulated, leaving many buyers unaware that they may be inadvertently supporting puppy mills where animals are kept in poor conditions.
This often leads to pets developing long-term health complications and behavioural issues. At the same time, several popular exotic breeds are not suited to India’s climate, requiring controlled environments and significantly higher maintenance, factors that are often overlooked at the time of purchase.
A new life
There is, perhaps, no argument more compelling than this. Adoption saves a life.
Rescue workers often describe dogs or cats that arrive at shelters as malnourished, injured, or deeply anxious.
Adoption gives indie animals a second chance, it turns their survival into companionship. (Pic source: NDTV)
For many indie animals, the past is marked by uncertainty. Some were abandoned pets, discarded when they grew too large or inconvenient. Others have spent their entire lives navigating traffic, hunger, and hostility.
Adoption interrupts that very trajectory. And in doing so, it allows an animal to become something it was always capable of being, a companion.
Why is adopting an Indie a good option?
Indie dogs and cats, having evolved in local conditions, are often better adapted to India’s climate. They tend to be resilient, with fewer genetic health issues than many selectively bred pedigrees. Their survival on the streets is not a sign of deficiency but of adaptability.
Behaviourally, too, the assumptions don’t hold. Many strays were once part of households and retain an innate familiarity with human interaction.
Others, though initially cautious, eventually adjust with consistent care.
Once given that, they do what dogs everywhere do: they form bonds.
Economics of compassion
There is also a more practical dimension to adoption. It is not expensive.
Most shelters ensure that animals are vaccinated and, in many cases, sterilised before being rehomed. Initial veterinary care is often included or subsidised. This reduces not only immediate expenses but also long-term health risks.
Besides, rescuing from one’s own locality carries another advantage. The animals are already adapted to the neighbourhood. So, there is less disorientation, less anxiety.
Each adoption eases shelter strain, freeing space to rescue and care for another animal. (Pic source: Hindustan Times)
In this sense, adoption is a financially sustainable choice.
But to frame it purely in economic terms would be to miss the point. What families often discover is that the return on this decision is not measurable in money, but in the first wag of a tail.
Adoption as a systemic intervention
Shelters across India operate under constant strain, balancing limited resources against overwhelming need. When one animal finds a home, it frees up capacity for another to be rescued, treated, and rehabilitated.
This ripple effect matters. It means that individual decisions contribute to collective impact.
In a country where street animals are often seen as a problem to be managed, adoption reframes them as lives to be valued.
The process: responsibility over impulse
Adopting a pet in India is not, and should not be, an impulsive act.
Guidelines laid out by the Animal Welfare Board of India emphasise responsibility at every stage.
Prospective adopters must be over 18, provide valid identification, and demonstrate the ability to care for an animal over its lifetime.
Reputable shelters conduct home checks, ensuring that spaces are safe, balconies secured, hazardous objects removed, and basic provisions in place. Regular feeding, access to clean water, and daily exercise are non-negotiable.
Paperwork formalises what is, at its core, a moral contract.
Adoption certificates, registration with local authorities, and commitments to vaccination and sterilisation create a framework of accountability.
Importantly, abandonment is not just unethical; it is punishable.
These protocols may seem rigorous, but they serve a purpose to ensure that adoption is not a fleeting act of compassion, it is a big commitment.
For many first-time adopters, this responsibility unfolds in personal ways.
Debadrita Sur recollects that while bringing her pet dog Brownie home felt instinctive, caring for her was something she had to learn from scratch.
She once came across a Facebook post that would change her life. It was an adoption appeal for four surviving puppies rescued from a garbage dump in Kolkata, where they had been dumped in a sack. One had already died. The rest were being nursed back to health by a local rescuer. “Brownie was the last puppy standing, and I instantly fell in love with Brownie’s long foxy ears and cheeky grin”, Debadrita tells The Better India.
When they met, the decision felt immediate. “As soon as we walked in she jumped up into my lap and I fell in love with her.”
But what followed was responsibility. Brownie’s past made that responsibility more immediate.
She arrived with health issues that demanded patience and care. “She also had a lot of worms because of how she grew up in the trash can… it brought us closer when she would scoot around in pain and I’d just help her with the worms,” Debadrita says.
“Adjusting to taking care of a dog was challenging because I’d never had a dog before,” she says.
The adoption came with paperwork, home checks, and follow-ups, but for Debadrita, it reshaped how she saw the larger culture around pet ownership in India.
Brownie came from a garbage dump to Debadrita’s lap: A fragile start that grew into love.
What often goes unnoticed, Debadrita tells The Better India, is the emotional intelligence of indie animals. “Indies are such an overlooked breed, and often people don’t appreciate how intelligent, friendly and smart they are. I’ve always been fascinated by them; they have so much love and affection for you despite all that they endure.”
That capacity for trust, despite hardship, is what stays with her. “A limping indie will instantly trust you if you offer pets and a biscuit, even if they’ve been hurt by another human.”
Her choice, then, was never accidental. “I always wanted a dog, and I always wanted an indie. I believe in the idea of ‘adopt-don’t shop’ and when there are so many dogs on the street that need a loving home, why not give them one instead of paying thousands for a breed-dog?”
“Adopting Brownie has been and will remain the best decision of my life… they surely do change your life for the better!”, she adds.
Changing the narrative
Perhaps the most powerful aspect of the “adopt, don’t shop” movement is its ability to reshape cultural narratives around responsibility, empathy, and choice.
For example, for Rumela Basu, adoption was a very conscious decision. “My husband and I always knew that we wanted a dog… or at some point we even considered getting a cat at home.”
“I think both of us were very clear on the fact that we will adopt,” she tells The Better India.
Why?
“There are hardly any ethical breeding centres, ethical breeders in India… it’s very rare”.
Their conviction deepened after witnessing abandonment firsthand. “Having seen so many abandonment cases, it made sense to give a home to a dog or a cat that is looking for a home, as opposed to getting it from a breeder.”
Their journey with their dog Mowgli, however, was somewhat unexpected. It wasn’t exactly a conventional adoption. “A litter of puppies were born in the society that we lived in, we used to feed the little puppies, and they grew up there.” But that soon became fraught, she mentions, “there was police called on us because we used to feed the dogs.”
Amid that uncertainty, two puppies from the litter had died from parvo, she recalls. And yet, in the middle of that loss, she realised how attached they had gotten, especially to Mowgli. “He was the only one who used to just enter the house without any qualms.”
Still, Rumela Basu emphasises that paperwork is only one small part of what adoption truly demands. “Practically and emotionally, the list is long,” she says. “Anytime you decide to bring a dog home, your entire life sort of gets restructured.” “You have this thing that’s completely dependent on you for food, for directions, for training; your own schedules also are completely altered.”
“Every rescue dog comes with its own set of challenges,” she explains. In Mowgli’s case, his early life on the streets shaped his behaviour. “He was a 9-month-old puppy, so there were some things in which he was set in his ways, including his reactivity to other dogs, because he was on the streets for a long time.”
On Mowgli’s second birthday, Rumela celebrates an indie who’s resilient, loving, and so full of fun.
Is it easy?
It is not always easy, she says. “It does get frustrating at times… everyone wants a well-adjusted living being in their house. But it doesn’t work like that; it depends on the dog, on the experience that the dog has gone through.”
And yet, she tells what makes Indies remarkable.
“The great part about having Indies is they’re super intelligent dogs, they are very hardy, they adjust very well to changing temperatures, and they are also low maintenance.”
But there is a gap.
“You’re not always aware of the resources to take care of indies. When you try to Google-hunt, it gives you a lot of breed-specific information, but those resources get much smaller when it comes to Indies. Most of the information comes from talking to other indie parents”.
The dog by the gate
Back in the Bengaluru apartment complex, the brown dog is no longer sleeping outside.
A resident has taken him in. His life now, like Brownie and Mowgli’s, will change.
