Stray Dogs, Public Policy Blunders, and Entrepreneurial Response

Stray dogs, sometimes strolling in herds on the streets of Zanjan, have raised ethical as well as public policy issues since I have become self-conscious about the policy issues of my hometown. In the extremely cold nights of January, you have to get used to the continuous sound of barks that steal sleep from your eyes. It is as if you are living in a village with lots of watch dogs warning you against potential threats. 

A few years ago, as a public policy response to the influx of stray dogs into the city, the authorities put up bounties for killing stray dogs. A few years later, the number of dogs on the streets showed that the policy was a big failure, partly because hardly any bounty hunter, willing to kill dogs to earn a living, could be found. But such a brutal policy towards stray dogs, who reportedly attacked no human beings, raised sympathy towards them, and activists condemned such abnormally harsh policies of the city authorities.

The unintended consequence of such a policy was that it raised considerable awareness about animal welfare and people became kinder and more sympathetic to animals compared to the feelings people had at the time of my childhood towards such animals.

Today, the word of mouth is that a lady, who is an environmental activist and entrepreneur, has proposed to the city authorities that a bounty to be paid to anyone or any company that captures any stray dogs. Then, she buys dogs from the authorities and after taking all necessary veterinary steps, her company exports those dogs to Western countries, particularly Germany, where they are trained and sold to customers.

This is one of the greatest examples of achieving Pareto improvement with a bit of thinking and effort. I understand that the lady has had to overcome so many legal and cultural barriers, especially those related to the trade on dogs, to start that business. Although the number of stray dogs on the streets of the city suggests that the initiative was of a limited success, I salute her achievement in introducing such a humane way of addressing the problem and am proud to be a concitoyen of such an entrepreneurial lady.

On the Doers and the Losers

On the turn of the year, I see that some Iranian friends, who post New Year’s Eve wishes, are being subject to ridicule by some others. There might be a lot of different reasons for that ridicule, an important one being the western or occidental values expressed by the ones, who are oriental, posting such wishes.

It is absolutely legitimate to be funny, of good sense of humor, and make people laugh. But making fun of people for being open to new cultures and amenable to cultural changes is simply a signal of cultural regress and having a mind full of prejudices and bigotry. Those satirists, if we may call them so, often project cultural protectionist attitudes as well, the same sorts of attitudes that have found their way to the public policy. Compare the weekends in Iran (Thursdays and Fridays) with those in the rest of the world!

The world is changing fast and one has to be agile in his adaptations. Waves of globalization have swept away many barriers and if we are fearful of facing the forces of globalization, for whatever reason, we will soon become irrelevant. Adaptation is and will be the key for the survival of any nation as well as any individual. To paraphrase Keynes, when the world changes, I change my mind, manners, demeanors, and customs and adapt my life style accordingly. What do you do, Sir/Madam?

We know of the old adage, “if you can’t beat them, join them”. If a country or a culture cannot establish its norms as the dominant one with the greatest number of countries and cultures in its network, it is imperative for that country to shift to the norms of the dominant culture, and to shift quickly. Do we know how much it costs to have different weekends (Thursdays and Fridays) from those of the rest of the world? 

If we do not join them in time, we will become, to borrow from Thomas Friedman, roadkills of global highway. After the killing, it is not important to know who killed the roadkill, but it is important to learn the lesson on how not to come to a standstill or reverse on the global highway.

It is an omnipresent fact that there are always those fainéants who ridicule those who do things. Ignoring the former is the most virtuous and gracious response by the latter. If we are not able to do things, or we are not amenable to changes, perhaps we are the one who is to be ridiculed and criticized. Fortunately enough, throughout history the former (fainéants) are the losers, for had they been winners, we would have been living in antiquity, if not in the Stone Age, for good.