Season 4, Episode 4: Free-Living Community Dogs with Sindhoor Pangal

When most people think about dogs, they picture pets living in homes. But globally, that represents only a minority of the canine population. Around 80% of the world’s dogs live as free-living community dogs, particularly across parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In this episode of The Dog Expert Podcast, Jo Middleton and Penny Wood are joined by Sindhoor Pangal to explore the reality of these populations, how they coexist alongside human communities, and why understanding them is essential to improving canine welfare worldwide. Together we discuss: • What free-living community dogs actually are and why they are not simply “strays” • Why stable community dog populations can support public health through vaccination and sterilisation programmes • Why removal-based population control strategies repeatedly fail • The current situation in India, where proposals to remove community dogs at scale have raised serious welfare and scientific concerns • How humane, evidence-based coexistence strategies can protect both people and dogs