FYI, Cynophobia refers to being afraid of dogs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynophobia)
When I say "We", I'm not generalizing all the Indians; so do not pounce on me. It struck that I should blog about this when I saw a colleague of mine talking about her beloved dog when she was asked to give a 5-minute random presentation on something. She started her presentation with the statement "How many of you are Dog owners and the presenter herself was the only person to raise the hand, as most of the audience were Desis. Everytime I walk with a group of desis on the streets, we pass by a dog and the next thing I see is people changing their walking pattern and they tend to move away from the dog. Devilishly, I muse those moments and laugh it off sometimes recalling how heroically they have been walking before that encounter :). While some of them are not dog-lovers, most of them are intimidated when a dog walks towards them.
While I'm not a dog lover either, I'm particularly not a dog hater too; not that I don't like pets but I like them more in other's houses. When I tell my white colleagues / friends that I have never had a pet before in my life, they give me an amazed look. Is it that bad not having a pet? They ask me, not even a dog? The next question on my mind, "Not even a Dog? Do you expect me to tame a Polar Bear?" I end up saying that more than 60% of the Indian households do not have a pet only to see them even more jolted. The basic thought behind their daze is "How can a person not have a pet?". Well, you would not ask that question if you grow up in a neighborhood where most of the stray dogs are feral and that we don't have Dog-bite laws.
A childhood friend of mine once said "I'm not fretful of the dog, but the 14 injections that I need to take around my belly button." In the back of my mind, I always wondered why are we so Cynophobic? Why do we see a "Beware of Dog" board outside the houses which have dogs as pets, and most of the times all they have is a Pamoranian. Why does every parent scold their their child when they bring in a pup from the roadside? Why does our instinct asks us to walk away from a pet, bet it a cat / dog / bird when it walks towards us? Why do we have instructions about remedies for Dog bites on the back of every text book? (People who have studied State Syllabus in A.P would understand that)
When I question myself, I feel that we are afraid of the fact that most of the stray dogs are feral or semi feral which is likely why we are afraid of dogs. And seeing enough of them chasing you while you are driving, you don't feel like raising one in your home. The well known fact that most of the dogs are not vaccinated doesn't help either. And the icing on the cake would be the stories from people who were bit by one of them and when they show the scar on their body because of that. Irrespective of all these, I never had a pet at home because I never wanted Dogs hair on my bed, couch, floor and elsewhere. I come across people who try to educate me on why a pet is important in life, but I always felt that it is an added responsibility to support another life and I'm not ready for it.