Case in point, this person, whose only crime was that they took her dog to a public park, that too on a leash and the dog didn’t even poop, which they would have picked up if it had. And BTW, this is a park, that according to the person, has stray dogs walking all over the place, as they should. 

Couple of days ago I was asking on Reddit if it’s allowed to take a leashed dog to a public park, after I was told by not a very pleasant morning walker it is not when we entered. I then did some research and also asked here to confirm. According to it the high court in New Delhi has decided to allow dogs on a leash in all public parks across India since the 1st March 2017. With this knowledge and full of confidence I took my dog there again this morning. We were having a blast there running laps, while one auntie came and started to tell me it’s not allowed, I have to go, potty potty… (My knowledge of Hindi is limited, but I understood what she was trying to say.) I told her it is allowed if he’s leashed and if I pick up his potty, but he won’t do it anyway since he just doesn’t in parks. It didn’t matter what I said she kept going on and on, then one uncle joined her, then another one came and another started shouting at me across the whole park. I told the youngest one who spoke some English that it’s been allowed since 2017 and he can look it up on his phone right now, but they apparently all new better and didn’t care about anything I had to say. They kept harassing me so I told them to call the police and leave me alone. They said if I come tomorrow again they will. It’s probably worth mentioning street dogs keep running in that park all the time.

– Saditko

If you thought, this was over, it’s not. This was Day 1. When they posted this, people were incredibly supportive. 

Things seemed to have calmed down with no uncles and aunties expressing their dominion over public property and with the general public is allowed or not allowed to do there. And then, this happened. 

Me and Ollie reached the park around 5:45. It was empty except couple street dogs. After 5 minutes of walking him, I notice couple uncles standing next to the park talking on their phones. For the next 15 minutes more uncles joined them, until it was 8 of them and they entered to confront me.

When they handed the legal proof that dogs can be here, the uncles went on with some bizarre reasoning as to why they couldn’t walk their dog, Ollie. 

It started alright, they just came to again tell me I’m not allowed to have my dog there. I told again the same, that it’s been allowed now if the dog is on a leash, only this time I also handed them the “Guidelines for allowing pet dogs in the public parks” which confirm my statement. They proceeded to read it as you can see in the first video and every few minutes they’d come up with a reason why it’s not true. Like: it applies only for New Delhi. It doesn’t mention parks, only public grounds and grounds are not parks. The chairman who’s singed the document is retired… I mean you can clearly see their reasonings were getting only more and more pathetic. One of them is also apparently a president of some association, of the RWA (the same association that was by the law supposed to take down all “no dogs allowed” in public parks and replace them with conditions signs) I presume, so his word is above mine, above the high court, above all.

Then came the cops and the rest is so obvious that at this point the action scenes are the most believable part of cop movies. 

Then we waited for the police to arrive. They arrived and sided with Mr. President of course. They also called for a back up. Apparently (at this point) 9 uncles and 2 cops weren’t enough against me and Ollie. None of the cops spoke English, so there wasn’t much I could do. I handed them the guidelines, but uncles told them it’s fake and not applicable here, so they followed. They asked my name, address and contact number and said they’ll file a complaint. I told them I’ll visit their station with a lawyer to clear this up. This all took almost an hour so I asked if I can go home now they said I can.

So now, the dog, the OP and the cops are at the police station for something that is not a crime, not remotely illegal. 

After 5 minutes of walking being half-way home a police jeep stopped me and they told me get with Ollie in the back. I asked why, they just said to get in the back that we’re going to the station. I cooperated. Once we got there a guy in a towel and baniyan started shouting something. When I realised he’s shouting at me I told him I don’t understand what’s he saying. Another one pointed me to tie Ollie to a tree. After 15 mins someone asked me to come inside. They asked for some personal info and I handed them both the documents the english original and the google translated one. They claimed it states it’s not allowed to visit parks when public is there. Then they tried to specify that till 10 o’clock or something. No timing is even mentioned there to be true. After about 45 mins they asked me to call my father-in-law to come, because not much of communication was possible. He came, three of the uncles arrived right afterwards. They talked friendly for 5-10 mins and we went home. The complainant wasn’t filed in the end, but Ollie is not allowed in the park.

If this all seems to have been written from a biased perspective, that’s because it is. As a fellow dog parent who’s had to deal with crap like this before, this is just pure harassment. You can read the whole post here.