Away now from roads and streets and lanes that so many Bali Dogs still tenuously cling onto as their only home. 

Away now from three abused and rescued and rehabilitated albeit still troubled local dogs that we had the absolute pleasure to spend almost every moment of our time with. 

Away now from Planet Bali our last home in a lifetime of temporary abodes and far enough away now that we can honestly and objectively look back on a place that was, is and always will be truly unique.

Unfortunately most visitors on Bali will never ever connect their superficial adoration of the Islands two legged natural beauty with their distain and disgust about the four legged local feral beasts from which they recoil.

The level of ignorance amongst the majority of those prepackaged bussed in and pampered tourists is of course understandable, but it’s not right. 

Their narrow viewpoint is of course conditioned, but that’s sad.  Their inability to look further than themselves is a reality, but that’s now dangerous.

Ubud was where most of our time was spent, Banjar Kutuh Kelod was where we lived and at the end of a narrow laneway was our modest two room home. 

Away from all of that, we simply came to know that the beauty and the beast of Bali are forever entwined.

What is now evidently at risk is a tipping point where beauty and beast cannot continue to coexist when faced with a global collective insanity.

An unstoppable beast based on greed, hell bent on destroying beauty.   

    

The latest round of killings poisonings beatings and gastronomical gorging on stolen Bali Dogs continues unabated and if recent reports of a rabies reemergence are proven to be correct then the future survival of Bali’s very own unique and ancient indigenous dog is once again precarious. 

The only benefit for the Bali Dog is the probability that the rabies virus has by now jumped species and is virulently entering the nervous system of other mammals around the Island.  If that proves to be the case then the focus will rapidly shift to rats cats bats and any other live birthing beasties on Planet Bali.

But the very real, very sad, very uncomfortable and very unpalatable reality is that as more and more visitors arrive and more and more foreign influence and greed increases, the danger to the Bali dog will rapidly ramp up.  Unfortunately because of and on the back of that established reality, the Bali Dog will continue to be accused of all manner of deviant deeds and ultimately abused over and over again.

Without carrying out a scientific survey and at the risk of being accusatory, it appears that outside forces are tacitly responsible for the drive of foreigners wanting rid of the unsightly Bali Dog, of course not counting those who want to dice slice and swallow a quintessential morsel of iconic Balinese culture.    That’s certainly not to say that those inside “paradise” are guilt free, they certainly are not.  However the Bali Dogs lot in life was certainly much more stable and secure in the thousands of years preceding this global unstoppable and consumption driven tsunami.

Of course it will never go back to where Bali Dogs suffered at a much lesser intensity. 

But if the degradation of resources also continues unabated and rabies explodes within such a lush tropical environment, then maybe just maybe the Bali Dog won’t be the only live birthing beastie being killed, poisoned, beaten and eaten.  Maybe then when humanity is surrounded and under direct threat from every direction, the Bali Dog can walk past the future and look back with a smug look of satisfaction and distain, at humanities disconnectedness from all things in nature.