Blue bottles to keep away strays in Chennai

A disclaimer upfront is in order. By highlighting this quirky exercise by residents of three small apartment complexes found in a row on MGR Street at Kaveri Rangan Nagar in Saligramam, this photojournalist is not endorsing it, not even by a jot.

By tying bottles with bluish liquid, which is a laundry bluish agent or fabric whitener, these residents are seeking to keep dogs and cats off their turf, more specifically deterring them from defecating on the premises.
Transparent plastic bottles displaying blue liquid dangle from the gates of three apartment complexes. Speaking to the residents, this photojournalist learnt that the initiative is one month old, and it throws up mixed reviews. All the three apartment complexes have a watchman each; and the watchman of one complex vouches for the effectiveness of this “deterrence”. He observes that the stray canines and felines have been avoiding this patch like the plague ever since these bottles with blue liquid showed up. A resident however refutes this claim, noting that a dog and a cat or two breach this “barrier” and defecate on the premises.

Bottles filled with blue-tinted water outside homes in Saligramam.
| Photo Credit:
VELANKANNI RAJ B

The idea bottles with blue water or any coloured water repel dogs and cats does not have a scientific basis, but seems prevalent. There is any number of messages and posts on various platforms, including social media debunking the idea (that coloured water keeps canines at bay) as a myth and unscientific. The bottles piquing the canines’ and felines’ curiosity, they can achieve the opposite of the outcome being sought.
But these residents, probably a good number of them, believe in this measure, wholeheartedly, as can be seen from the number of blue liquid-filled bottles placed on “deterrence duty”, and as it hardly interferes with others’ freedom and rights, they are free to exercise it within their space. Whether it is really effective is wholly different matter.