All dogs look different based on what breed they are, but one group of puppies in India had a pretty shocking change in appearance. When a group of canines was spotted roaming the streets dyed completely blue, locals wondered if this was a prank gone wrong, or if something much worse was going on under the surface. Find out why these pups looked so strange...
Man's Best Friend
Dogs are truly man's best friend. They're there for you when you need them most, and in return, most people are devoted to their pets. A group of stray dogs in Mumbai, India, however, had no one to look out for them, and unfortunately, they really needed it. These dogs were showing signs of a serious and unusual health issue, but people were unsure of how it even began. When they got to the bottom of it, though, this animal rights issue made people pay attention...
Seeing the Problems
In Mumbai, stray dogs are a normal sight. The pups number somewhere near 100,000 in the city. Though they've been trying to lower the number for generations, the number of dogs just seems to grow more and more. It's very common in the Mumbai area to treat the furry animals as street dwelling pets, similar to how the US might treat stray felines in big cities...
Unsafe Conditions
However, Mumbai isn't exactly the cleanest city for animals or residents. The dogs are often fed scraps from locals and drink water from the river. The garbage piles up in the streets and at least five hundred tons of trash go uncollected every day. While it's a paradise for a stray dog, it's a sanitation crisis. Mumbai has the highest death toll for human rabies in the world at almost 20,000 per year...
Finding a Place
Dogs in India were decreed safe by the government in 2001, and it became illegal for locals to kill the excessive strays. As a result, the streets ran rampant with the animals. Several began training as police dogs, which helped a bit, but the increase in population made things change all around the town. The city was in a state of growing pains, and the dogs were being overlooked...
Feeling Blue
One day, locals in the area noticed their beloved street pets didn't look quite right. In fact, they looked, well, rather blue, literally. Their fur had suddenly turned a light pale blue color and no one knew why. They acted the same otherwise. Had something happened? Did someone maybe paint all of the dogs in the city as a way for people to start paying them more attention? What was going on that changed the color of these animals?
Blues Clues
One stray city dog had turned blue almost overnight. "It was shocking to see how the dog’s white fur had turned completely blue," commented a shocked Arati Chauhan, a resident of Navi Mumbai. The police knew something was wrong, so they began asking around to see if anything had changed in the environment or local practices. They found out fairly quickly...
Who Else?
"We have directed our sub-regional officer to investigate,” said one officer. There was another terrifying thought...what if the danger didn't stop with dogs? What if people came next? Authorities assured locals that this was probably not the case, saying: "We have only spotted blue dogs so far. We do not know if birds, reptiles and other creatures are affected..."
Pollution Control
It wasn't paint or a prank that turned these dogs blue. The cause was even worse, it was the water. Industrial waste from local factories was being released into the Kasadi River, where many strays went to drink, and began to turn the dog's coats blue. Even worse, there was no way of telling what would happen next. The waste included oxygen concentration and chloride, which could be seriously harmful to any living things...
Those Affected
The pollution in the water affected fish as well. The BOD levels made the water unsustainable for life and unfit for human consumption. The area reported an astounding 1,000 food, engineering, and pharmaceutical factories dumping waste into the river. The Kasadi River far exceeded safe amounts of pollution by almost 13 times the safety limit. The untreated industrial waste was weighing heavily on the community...
Foul Fish
The local fishermen were most affected by pollution. One fisherman, Yogesh Pagade, said "After numerous complaints to MPCB over the years, only the stench at Kasadi has reduced. However, the pollution levels continue to be extremely high and dissolved oxygen is negligible." He was in charge of a study that measured the levels of pollution in the now infamous river...
How It All Happened
The area where the waste was dumped into the slow-moving river is blocked to the public, so the people were probably mostly safe. The dogs were generally okay too, but evidently, five or six of the animals made their way inside. Officer Jayavant Hajare said, "We have warned the company owners to ensure no animals can enter again and such an incident should not be repeated..."
Removing the Dye
The companies in the area were given a week to clear the issue from the water. If not removed, the authorities would have to be further involved. There were 977 chemical, pharmaceutical, engineering, and food processing plants in the surrounding area. These spread across 2157 acres. While this is certainly strange, there are reports of dogs in different cultures turning colors other than blue...
Dog People
Louise Sutherland and her family lived a normal life in Golspie, Scotland. They were total dog people and loved their furry friends as much as they could. The Scottish countryside meant that it was a dog's paradise, able to run in the fields and splash around in the waves on the shore. She owned cats as well, but dogs were a family passion for the Sutherland crew...
Meeting Rio
Her oldest dog was Rio, an adorable golden retriever who had given birth to a litter of pups only a year prior. The birth had gone smoothly, and Louise later remarked that it seemed almost too perfect. Little did she know that the trouble was brewing under the surface. Soon there would be a new litter of pups under her roof, and with them, a new set of problems...
Lazing Around
Louise noticed that Rio wasn't as jovial and lively as she usually was. This was concerning since her personality barely changed during the first pregnancy, but still, Louise didn't think too much into it. After all, every pregnancy can be unique, so surely Rio was just undergoing some changes. Everything seemed normal on the outside, but the inside was anything but...
So Far, So Good
Rio's first delivery went according to plan, and she delivered five puppies, which had since been adopted by other families. Louise had helped the 2017 delivery along as best she could, but she was worried about the new one. The labor ended up being longer and more difficult. But there was one part of the new incoming puppies that no one could have expected...
Not So Golden
Inexplicably, one of the tiny puppies came out of Rio dyed completely green. Louise thought she was seeing things, so she called her sister Claire to come over and validate what she was seeing. Claire couldn't believe her eyes because yes, that puppy was definitely green! The other nine puppies were normal looking, which made the anomaly that much stranger...
It's Not Easy Being Green
Although they were intrigued by the mutation, the sisters were also worried. What did this mean for their new puppies? Would Rio be okay? The dog seemed to be acting like normal, but what was normal? She was running around, eating normally, and snuggling up to the mother just like the other pups. What had happened to the fur though?
Figuring It Out
The women took to the internet to find the cause of the mysterious green fur. They were happy, nay, thrilled to find out that the dog wasn't sick. It was all purely cosmetic and over time the green would fade away. While they were relieved, they were definitely still confused. In fact, they had even more questions. Still, though, the pup wasn't sick, which was a huge weight off their shoulders...
The Secret to the Green
As it turns out, the green had something to do with Rio's placenta. The puppy would grow up totally normal, but the condition she was born with was known as biliverdin. It's green bile that can grow on a pup that's growing in the mother's womb. For humans, we can see this at work in ourselves when we bruise and our skin turns yellow or green after the incident...
Biliverdin Explained
Dr. Victor Stora, a resident at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine clarified what was happening to the puppy. He said the dog isn't in any danger and the biliverdin wouldn't affect her long term. Dr. Sotra explained that blood escapes the placenta, which is broken down in the uterus to become the green dye. If the dye infects an amniotic sac, the puppy will come out green!
Not So Abnormal
"Therefore," continued Dr. Stora "The placentation of this puppy must have been abnormal if it did not repel the biliverdin and allowed it to invade in." Basically, the dog's placenta was already destined to be different than it's brothers and sister's which explains why the other puppy siblings weren't affected by the mysterious green dye in the womb.
Luck of the Pup
Usually, placenta defects can cause much bigger problems than just green hair. It can change development in the womb, dimish nutritional intake, and even cut off oxygen in the womb. Thankfully, the bile just stained the little dog's fur, and as soon as it got some baths from mom and some time to grow, the green coloring would be nothing but a memory. The dog was certainly a special one, so it deserved a special name...
One in a Million
Louise and Claire Sutherland knew this puppy was unusual and very special, so it needed to have a special name to match. They wanted it to be green-themed, so they tossed around ideas like Ireland, Grinch, and even just "Greenie" but in the end, the answer was obvious. Since the Scottish country was so filled with beautiful trees and nature, they decided to name her...
Perfect Name
...Forest! The name "Forest" was a perfect reflection of the animal's Scottish heritage and of course, the green tone she started off with. It was a perfect fit! There was only one problem. Louise was a breeder, and soon the dogs would have to be given to new owners. Would she be able to separate from her prized green pup? She honestly wasn't sure...
Forest is Family
Although in a perfect world, Louise would be able to keep all the dogs she produced, she knew it was unrealistic to keep all the dogs together. They were already growing! In the end, she decided to hang on to the little Forest. She was just too rare and special to give up to a stranger. The family had already grown attached so there was no going back this time...
Part of the Pack
The other puppies had to be given away, and Louise made sure they all went to happy and loving homes. Unfortunately for these buyers, there was one puppy never for sale, and that was Forest. She instead spent her days hiking along the Scottish highlands with her mother and father and their owners. They were finally one big happy family...
Very Rare
Only four other dogs in total have ever been recorded as having this unique phenomenon occur. The last time it happened was in 2014 to a pair of twin puppies! Another case came from the UK when a chocolate lab had given birth to a green puppy just like Forest. It was unusual, for sure, but there were others out there like the strange little green puppy dog...
Feeling Blue
It's a good thing that none of the residents of Mumbai turned blue, or that Louise and Claire turned green. Dogs can often look like their owners, according to a study done by Michael Roy at the University of California in San Diego. He photographed different dog owners at a park and processed the film of the person and the dog separately. The result shocked him...
Look Alikes
Participants were asked to match the dog to their owner. Despite having no indication of who owned who, the results showed that people were able to match the owner to the dog with reasonable accuracy. They claimed to base their choices on eyes, appearances, and coloring. The specifics were perplexing to researchers, but they made a lot of sense...
Pure Bred
The resemblances were very slight, but noticeable nonetheless. For example, women with long hair usually had dogs with floppy ears. Heavier people tended to prefer heavier dogs. It even went down to the eyes, where owners can share eye shape with their special pups. Psychologists believe this matching system can be applied to our love lives as well...
Love Language
Psychologists think that the way we pick dogs might mimic how we pick mates. Generally, people date people whose genetics are compatible with their own, meaning we have a tendency to prefer things that remind us of ourselves. We tend to choose cars the same way, choosing bigger fenders if we have a square jaw and so on. As a result, your car might also resemble your dog!
Just Like Us
We also tend to go for animals that match our personalities. Ever notice a quiet friend has a quiet dog? Or an active friend might have an excitable animal? Borbala Turcsan at Eotvos University in Budapest claimed that the similarity was incredible. "It was actually higher than the similarity found in married couples and friends," she says. Dogs really are man's best friend!