Life in the Free Roaming Zone

Since drastically drawn up and loosely enacted regulations and enforced laws were handed down on Bali in regard to collaring, chaining and caging, free roam zones for the Bali Dog have continued to be squeezed as invasion pushes in from all fronts.

The same old scooter and car dangers are brutally present but their numbers have explosively increased. This means unfortunately no matter how skilled the savvy Bali Dog is when it comes to road and traffic awareness, their ability to safely navigate is greatly diluted.  Especially when confronted by bigger, faster and impatient humans on/in bigger faster and more powerful machines.

The reality that life on Bali has accelerated to levels that cannot support free roaming dogs is not going to change.  As increased pace and spread of invasive agency continues unabated, remembrances of village simplicity based on communal and community existence will be nothing more than an historical footnote.

Collared chained and caged Bali Dogs were an historical non-existent thing. 

Collaring emerged on the virulent hind quarters of Rabies signifying vaccination and ownership.  Collaring, as a symbol, has no physical impact on the Bali Dog.  However, there are indeed nasty collar driven consequences for a free roaming canine that has historically proven to be very wary when it comes to being physically handled.  Anyone even remotely associated with the Bali Dog world since 2010 will have seen the horrific collar wounds that result from a collar not being replaced as a dog grows. 

The collar had also innocently/unintendedly become a slippery slope, a harbinger, a precursor to chaining and caging.  An ancient community owned collarless and free spirited roaming dog was about to endure torturous actions.

An expectation that the wearer/collared must have a designated one home one owner one location status has now been engineered. The legislated enforcement shift has seen a seismic movement from ancient norms and structures to future restructured and foreign realities.  For local dog and local people this was the beginning of an invasive reframing of their relationship.

For many who have observed the Bali Dog, especially those who spend the majority of their time in ‘modern Bali,’ the consequences of ‘progressive modernity‘ on the Bali Dog is dreadful indeed. 

But as dire as the reality appears and actually is, there are still many spaces on this small island where freedom from the most suffocating effects of invasive colonization is still occurring.