Sixteen years ago, filmmaker Abhijit Das met with a car accident in Kolkata. “A friend’s dog died in that mishap,” he remembers. “At the time, I never quite understood the emotion of losing a pet. It was just a dog for me.” Later, Das bought a puppy for his grieving friend. Cradling the animal spurred a new feeling in him. “Everything changed”. Three years later, he became a proud parent to 16 dogs, all abandoned and rescued. He continued to live with the third generation of the brood with more four-legged friends added to the fam. Presently, Das lives with his actor girlfriend Riya Bhattacharje in Mumbai’s Madh Island with 11 dogs and eight cats. “They are our children,” he says.

Das’ memories were triggered by a recent comment on parenthood by Pope Francis made during a weekly general audience at the Vatican. Bemoaning the global decline in birthrates, the head of the Catholic Church suggested that pets are “taking the place of children” branding the act “a form of selfishness”. People who have pets instead of children, the Pope said, were being selfish, exhibiting a “denial of fatherhood or motherhood” that “diminishes us, it takes away our humanity”. The remarks, expectedly, drew strong reactions on social media, particularly on Twitter where he went viral. While there were some who agreed with  the Pope, there were many who didn’t. “Billionaires and oil companies are right there, and Pope Francis is out here calling people with dogs selfish,” wrote Sarah Maclean, bestselling romance author and The Washington Post columnist.