“Who let the dogs out”
| A city that does not care for its non-human life is unintelligent, unethical and immoral and not worthy of being called ‘smart’. |
When we talk about modern city or so called smart city our prime objective is to enhance the physical, institutional, social and economical scale of the cities with the stated purpose of improving lives. According to government websites, the smart cities will ensure adequate water, electricity, sanitation, solid waste management, urban mobility, public transport, affordable housing, IT connectivity, good governance, citizen participation, sustainable environment, and the safety and security of citizens particularly women, children and the elderly. But there are no documents mentioning the welfare of India’s non-human and non-voting citizenry the urban animals in the smart city concept. A city that does not care for its non-human life is unintelligent, unethical and immoral and not worthy of being called ‘smart’. In order to make our future city really smart, it is important to include other areas like urban agriculture, care for the pets and management of stray animals, mostly stray dogs.
Now it is high time we must think seriously about the stray dog problems which have got socio-economic, political and religious impact in all parts of the country. So far as human health is concerned rabies is a major issue related to stray dog menance. Rabies is a highly fatal viral disease transmitted mainly in the saliva of a rabid mammal and mostly through dog bite. It is invariably fatal both in humans and animals. As per the report of World Health Organisation (WHO), India faces about 18,000 to 20,000 cases of rabies every year and an estimated 45 pc of all deaths from rabies occur in South-East Asia itself, out of which about 36 pc of the world’s deaths from rabies happen in India. Dogs are responsible for about 97 pc of human rabies in India followed by cats 2 pc, jackles, mongoose and others 1 pc. In the rural areas of the country many rabies cases were gone unnoticed because the victims are poor and uneducated and they seek treatment when it is too late.
The number of cases of dog bites, accidents and deaths due to dogs are on rise in almost all major cities of India. Worst sufferers of these dog bites and accidents are motorists commuting in the night, children of slum areas and elderly people toiling in the morning and evening hours. There is environmental pollution due to defecation and urination of dogs in the habitation area leading to human health hazards. It may so happen that when dogs are not dewormed properly (most of the time the stray dogs are not dewormed) they are a potential source of infected pathogens like Toxocariasis, which can lead to blindness in children. The dog being a carnivorous animal stayes in groups and attack their prey in jungles, that is their natural instinct. The same evolutionary instinct is also seen in the dogs in cities, when there are no slaughter of animals due to non consumption of meat and fish on religious ground these poor animals are in starvation and are prompted to attack in groups to other animals and even humans.
India’s stray dog population is around 35 million with an estimated growth rate of 17 pc per annum. With the demographic expansion of the city, rapid multiplication of the roads, flyovers, shopping malls and other commercial establishments the number of stray dogs has equally grown at same pace. Junk food stalls are the favourate places of dogs in the city. People dump unwanted pups in the premises of temples, hospitals, schools, office premises and other public areas. These dogs are fed but only a few bother to sterilize and neuter them. All religious and social function where a large amount of food material was thrown outside, is a good sourse of nutrition for stray dogs. Stray the word itself is wrong, they are our Indian native breeds, which we Indians don’t want to accept, with a colonial mindset of having a fancy breed as a pet we neglect our own native breed and called it as stray dogs which roam around our neighbourhood.
Earlier in order to have dog free streets eradication of stray dogs by culling being tried by countries like UK and USA which has only led to different kind of risks. In UK when in some areas, complete culling of stray dogs was carried out, the fox, jackles and other wild cats who are previously being terrorised by these stray dogs not to enter human settlements, attack the human habitation and attack other pets like rabbit, hens etc. It is easy to dismiss dogs as pests that can be eliminated without worry, however it is important to remember that many creatures that were persecuted in the past as pests for example wolves and bats are now protected as endangered animals or reintroduced for their ecological role in to the ecosystem. Snakes once killed as pests are now being reintroduced in rural Karnataka to control rats.
There are many reasons which justify that culling the dogs is not the answer for rabies control programme. First of all our Animal birth control rules of 2001, under prevention of cruelity to animals act, specify that “only incurably ill and mortally wounded dogs as dignosed by a qualified veterinarian be euthanized. Dogs suspected of having rabies must be captured and isolated. If rabies is confirmed, they must be allowed to die natural death in isolation. Any animal that is not suffering from an incurable disease cannot be put down”. There is also a practical reason which implies that culling of dogs will not reduse the dog population in a particular geographical area. Dogs being descendants of wolves are territorial animals always looking to expand their territory. When dogs are removed from a neighbourhood, dogs from other areas end up moving in to the ecological niche (simple put, food and space) that becomes available. In large complex and diverse geographical place like India, such influx is inevitable because the administrative boundries based on which dog control is carried out do not prevent the movement of dogs. It has also been oserved that culling reduses the average life span of the dog population which is dangerous because some research findings suggest that young dogs are involved in the transmission of the fatal disease, rabies. Dogs are prolific breeders, expert in migration and they have got higher pup survival rate and these factors are responsible for maintaining a constant dog population in a particular geographical area.
With the prime objective of creation and maintenanace of a rabies immune or rabies free dog population, reduce the risk of zoonotic diseases other than rabies at the same time taking in to consideration the animal welfare, the ABC (Animal Birth Control programme) has been developed by WHO. In this programme stray dogs are impounded, surgically sterilized and released back into the area from where they were picked up. Until 1998 the population of stray dogs in India was kept under control by civic authorities by impounding and euthanizing the unclaimed dogs and was replaced by a policy on animal birth control and street dog neutering and vaccination programme by a central law in the year 2001
However more than two decades of street dog eradication programme through ABC however did not make much of a difference to dog population sizes and the incidence of human rabies in India. Dogs typically reproduce twice a year and to control their population, the rate of sterilization must be greater than their rate of reproduction. As per experts the success of this ABC programme depends on the sterilization of 70 pc of stray dogs in a given geographic area withen six months time before the next reproductive cycle begins. One has to keep going back to the area and sterilize and vaccinate the animals to break the rabies chain, otherwise the entair effort is neglected. This target is difficult to achieve in a country like India, given the large number of stray dogs population and the limited resourses and logistics. Stray dogs are semidomestic in nature and they live in or near human settlements and thrive on food wastes generated by people. This specific type of interactions between humans and these animals mediated by human life style (such as food waste) that leads to risk of public health and safety( dog bite, pathogens, accidents etc) which cannot be addressed by vaccinating and neutering the dog alone.
The WHO says prevention of human rabies is possible through mass dog vaccination, promotion of responsible dog ownership and dog population control programme with a partnership approach. The strategy of eradication of rabies by ABC-ARV (Animal Birth Control-Anti Rabies Vaccination) in India where the emphasis is on the dogs alone does not recognize that dogs are just one component of a multifaceted set of variables that lead to mouling, bites, and rabies. What we need to understand is that ABC programme is as much about human welfare as it is for dogs and this is true for any public health concern for example one cannot tackle AIDS without education, awarenerss and infrastructure (availability of condoms and HIV testing) relating to the safe sex practices. Similarly when it comes to human dog interaction there needs to be as much of an emphasis on educating people and children on how to interact safely with stray dogs, proper waste disposal , consistent implementation of neutering and vaccination progranmmes, responsible dog ownership and provision of veterinary and medical assistance.
As per experts opinion the main obstacles when it comes to rabies elimination in india is the lack of comprehensive national rabies control programme, various organizations are ionvolved in control activities without any intersectoral coordination, so no tangible results has been achieved in last twenty years. Under 12th five year plan National Rabies Control Programme (NRCP) has been approved. The NRCP has both human and animal health components, the human health component is being implemented throughout the country but animal health component is implemented in selected regions of the country like Haryana. In the state of Haryana by the efforts of Haryana state government and NRCP bring success to the region when it comes to street dog management and educating the public about rabies. Experience gained from this pilot project indicates that the strategy is feasible, reproducible and implementable. It is now proposed to roll out a comprehensive control strategy for both human and animal components in all 35 states and UTs.
Even if one believes dodgs are the creatures that can be killed without compunction, doing so is not an effective means of safeguarding human wellbeing. There may be many situations where human and animal rights are in conflict, but this particular situation of dog bite and rabies is not one of them. What is required is a multidimensional One health approach that addresses the public health issues of dog bites and rabies through carefully implemented neutering and vaccination programmes, responsible dog ownership, public education and behavior changes and proper waste management.
Dr.Gyana Ranjan Mishra, M.V.Sc.( Veterinary & A.H. Extension)
Block Veterinary Officer, (OVS-I, Sr.)
Veterinary Dispensary, Satyabadi, Puri
M-7788991216.
