The recent death of a child from a dog
attack is both shocking and tragic. It is inexcusable that we cannot
prevent an avoidable tragedy. Governments immediately shift the blame on
the law, which advocates Animal Birth Control (ABC) rather than killing,
on NGOs who do not sterilise and vaccinate enough dogs, and so on. Yet
no government will admit that poor governance is responsible for the
child's death.
Waste dumps are excellent breeding sites
for a variety of wildlife, including rats, flies, mosquitoes,
disease-carrying bacteria and dogs. Governments must manage solid waste.
Every city has a suburban waste dump which breeds disease. This time the
problem was a dog. Next time, it may be plague borne by invisible rats.
Stray dogs are a rare sight in the West because there are no visible
garbage dumps.
Illegal meat and broiler chicken shops
abound everywhere in India. "Fresh meat/chicken sold here" is a common
sign on boards, with live animals beneath, to be slaughtered before the
buyer, leaving a trail of blood and bones. Which dog would turn down a
juicy morsel? But the authorities turn a blind (and corrupt) eye. The
common factor in the recent incidents of dog attacks was the slaughter
house, with illegal dumping yards at the sites of the attacks.
Governments expect NGOs to solve the
problem of stray dogs. NGOs must catch, spay/neuter and vaccinate ALL
the stray dogs in India. If so, what are governments for? According to
the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), the number of NGOs working in
the field of animal welfare is 2,500, out of which about 100 are doing
ABC. The rest run goshalas. The annual budget of the AWBI is about Rs 10
crores, out of which a fraction is available for ABC, an amount which
must be shared by NGOs from all over India. State governments have
abdicated their responsibility by putting the burden of controllingthe
dog population on NGOs, threatening to kill dogs instead. To prevent the
cruelty involved in killing (electrocution or being beaten to death),
NGOs have accepted this unfair responsibility and taken over the
government's duties. Why quiz the CUPA ****representative on the reason
why ABC had not yet reached the Bangalore suburb? The answer was known:
there is no NGO there.
NGOs cannot be an alternative to
governance. NGOs can only supplement official efforts, particularly at
grass-root levels. What would happen in North Indian towns where NGOs
are as rare or as corrupt as the government? State governments must take
up ABC on a war footing and provide funds if the dog population is to be
controlled. Instead, the Commissioner, ****BBMP, promises to catch and
kill "ferocious dogs and leaders of dog packs". Tragically, only the
docile, friendly dogs will be caught and killed.
After years of killing dogs, only to see
their population increase, World Health Organization (WHO) made some
obvious and important discoveries: that the population of dogs was
directly proportionate to the food available, meaning that no rubbish
heaps and slaughter-house wastes means no dogs; that killing dogs leaves
a vacuum, to be filled by more dogs who breed and increase the
population; that the only way to control dog populations and rabies is
by sterilising and vaccinating the animals and returning them to their
home territories. Dogs are territorial animals and will not permit the
entry of an intruder. Sterilisation makes them docile, since the
hormonal urge to mate, and its consequent ferocity, is missing. Chennai
and San Francisco saw the first successful implementation of ABC.
In The State of Animals (2005) edited by
Deborah J. Salem and Andrew N Rowan, "In Delhi, a concerted effort at
dog removal killed a third of the stray dogs, with no reduction in dog
population." In the early 1970s, the stray dog population in Chennai was
so high that, in spite of killing several thousand dogs a year (30,000
dogs in 1995 alone) - resulting in a thriving industry of dog leather
bags, footwear and wallets - the population went up geometrically.
Mysore is killing dogs on a mass scale, yet the dog population keeps
increasing.
Every city and village has a veterinary
hospital with under-worked doctors, most of who receive a full day's
salary, work for a few hours and take off the rest of the day for
private practice. They should be made to sterilise dogs. Unfortunately,
AWBI funds are insufficient. Every city, town and village needs to take
up ABC simultaneously. In their paper Rabies and Rabies-related viruses,
Florence Cliquet and E Picard-Meyer have observed that the ABC programme
in India, if conducted regularly, "should lead to a stabilisation of the
stray dog population within five to seven years."
In Chennai, the incidence of rabies went
down from 120 in 1996, when a full-scale ABC programme was launched, to
5 in 2003 and 2004. Today the rabies cases are limited to those brought
in from rural areas. What 100 years of killing (1896-1996) could not
achieve, ten years of ABC has. In Jaipur and Kalimpong, the number of
rabies cases declined from 10 in 1999 and 2000 to nil since 2001-2002.
The success of ABC in these cities means it does work.
Some state governments and
municipalities have taken a pro-active role. About 45,000 dogs were
sterilised in Ahmedabad municipality in the last year - the largest
number in the country. In Tamil Nadu, the Urban Development Ministry has
instructed all municipalities to carry out ABC on a war footing and to
use their own funds. The money spent by municipalities to catch and kill
dogs should be used for ABC
Dog breeding must be regulated. Anyone
with a pedigreed male and female of the same species starts breeding
dogs. If he has a dog of only one sex, he rents it out for breeding.
This goes on in rich homes and poor huts, for it promises a lucrative,
tax-free income with minimal investment. There is no registration of
breeders or dossier of puppies born. When the animals can no longer
breed, they are abandoned on the streets, where they have to scrounge
for food in the garbage. The stray dogs of Ooty include beautiful
Alsatians and other prized breeds abandoned by breeders. Rats,
similarly, are bred for sale to laboratories. Wait for the next plague.
As a mother and a human being, my heart
goes out to the parents of the dead children. But let us not take
knee-jerk reactions. Governments must find sustainable scientific
solutions, and ABC has proven to be successful in controlling dog
populations and rabies, if carried out properly. Don't bite the dog to
cover up poor governance.
