https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36035456
https://mediaindia.eu/social-vibes/stray-dogs-a-major-problem-in-india/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-has-30-million-stray-dogs-one-state-is-pushing-vigilantes-to-kill-them/2016/10/20/48017a70-252f-4440-9a55-8ca9d4509145_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5f59342bf03f
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India accounts for 36 per cent of rabies deaths that occur worldwide each year. While one can develop the disease if bitten or scratched by any rabid mammal, such as monkeys or bats, WHO says dogs contribute up to 99 per cent of all rabies transmitted to humans; and children are the usual victims.
Surprisingly, no Indian media had carried news on this magnitude of the stray dog menace in India. Rabies deaths are an incorrect metric. They overlook the number of injuries caused that do not lead to fatalities.
So, I asked, how many dog bites do we get every year?
In India, about 15 million people are bitten by animals, mostly dogs, every year and need postexposure prophylaxis. Since 1985, India has reported an estimated 25 000–30 000 human deaths from rabies annually (the lower estimate is based on projected statistics from isolation hospitals in 1985).2 The majority of people who die of rabies are people of poor or low-income socioeconomic status.3 The incidence of death from rabies in Asia is given in Figure 2.5 Because rabies is not a notifiable disease in India and there is no organized surveillance system of human or animal cases, the actual number of deaths may be much higher. The latest figure projected from the National Multicentric Rabies Survey, conducted in 2004 by the Association for Prevention and Control of Rabies in India in collaboration with the World Health Organization,1 is 20 565 deaths from rabies per year.
From: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2244675/
These are the government's official figures. And they admit that these are way underreported.
Here is my question then - why are they underreported? Causing grievous injury is a crime and the city's protection mechanism should deal with this.
In Bengaluru, the official figure is 3 bites every 2 minutes. Yes, you read that right.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/bengaluru-stray-dog-menace-3-bites-every-2-minutes-registered-in-2017-1339866-2018-09-14
This is the figure from the complaints received by the BMP. These are obviously under reported because if i survive a dog attack, i will NOT go and report it. I will be too terrified.
Currently, there are 25 million dogs in the country; the annual incident of dog bite is around 1.75 million, WHO says.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/health/india-sees-1-75-million-dog-bites-every-year-yet-we-face-up-to-80-shortage-of-anti-rabies-vaccines-61298
This is 4794 dog bites per day. And these are underreported figures.
And the AWBI has some answering to do: (from the same article sited above)
An internal evaluation report of the Union environment ministry in 2008 shows AWBI has no guidelines for giving grants to animal welfare organisations that are entrusted with the responsibility of sterilising dogs, vaccinating them periodically and providing them shelter.
Steephen cites the instance of Japan, where only two have died of rabies in last 50 years, that too after being bitten in India and the Philippines. Japan does not allow dogs on the street. “Those which are found are put up for adoption. When no one adopts them, they are euthanised. Same is done in the US and Ireland,” he adds. While WHO mandates that at least 80 per cent of dogs need to be vaccinated annually to break the cycle of transmission, only 2.4 per cent have been vaccinated by AWBI over the past 10 years.
And here is another report, on a much smaller sample:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866364/
In the first ever intervention on human-animal conflict, an attempt is being made to tackle the monkey and dog population in MP living areas in Delhi. Nowhere else.
My conclusion:
India has the money. We never lack money. What we lack is policy decisiveness and the willingness to understand that ABC rules were designed to fail. The only people who suffer because of the so called "Dog Lovers" are the dogs.
There are 3 policy interventions that are necessary:
1. Make animal breeding for sale illegal. It is inhuman and cruel and works against adoption of strays.
2. Create animal shelters. Make it mandatory for NGOs to create and sustain animal shelters to continue to receive govt funds. There are enough NGOs and enough private people will support if there is genuine effort. If there are qualified vets available for luxury pet spas, there are enough vets for the govt's sterilisation program too.
3. Do NOT force people to adopt colony strays. Fear of dogs is a real thing. And when there are 4 or 5, dogs WILL display pack behaviour and hunt. It is their nature. So people will be attacked. We cannot fault the dogs for their natural behaviour.
https://mediaindia.eu/social-vibes/stray-dogs-a-major-problem-in-india/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-has-30-million-stray-dogs-one-state-is-pushing-vigilantes-to-kill-them/2016/10/20/48017a70-252f-4440-9a55-8ca9d4509145_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5f59342bf03f
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India accounts for 36 per cent of rabies deaths that occur worldwide each year. While one can develop the disease if bitten or scratched by any rabid mammal, such as monkeys or bats, WHO says dogs contribute up to 99 per cent of all rabies transmitted to humans; and children are the usual victims.
Surprisingly, no Indian media had carried news on this magnitude of the stray dog menace in India. Rabies deaths are an incorrect metric. They overlook the number of injuries caused that do not lead to fatalities.
So, I asked, how many dog bites do we get every year?
In India, about 15 million people are bitten by animals, mostly dogs, every year and need postexposure prophylaxis. Since 1985, India has reported an estimated 25 000–30 000 human deaths from rabies annually (the lower estimate is based on projected statistics from isolation hospitals in 1985).2 The majority of people who die of rabies are people of poor or low-income socioeconomic status.3 The incidence of death from rabies in Asia is given in Figure 2.5 Because rabies is not a notifiable disease in India and there is no organized surveillance system of human or animal cases, the actual number of deaths may be much higher. The latest figure projected from the National Multicentric Rabies Survey, conducted in 2004 by the Association for Prevention and Control of Rabies in India in collaboration with the World Health Organization,1 is 20 565 deaths from rabies per year.
From: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2244675/
These are the government's official figures. And they admit that these are way underreported.
Here is my question then - why are they underreported? Causing grievous injury is a crime and the city's protection mechanism should deal with this.
In Bengaluru, the official figure is 3 bites every 2 minutes. Yes, you read that right.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/bengaluru-stray-dog-menace-3-bites-every-2-minutes-registered-in-2017-1339866-2018-09-14
This is the figure from the complaints received by the BMP. These are obviously under reported because if i survive a dog attack, i will NOT go and report it. I will be too terrified.
Currently, there are 25 million dogs in the country; the annual incident of dog bite is around 1.75 million, WHO says.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/health/india-sees-1-75-million-dog-bites-every-year-yet-we-face-up-to-80-shortage-of-anti-rabies-vaccines-61298
This is 4794 dog bites per day. And these are underreported figures.
And the AWBI has some answering to do: (from the same article sited above)
An internal evaluation report of the Union environment ministry in 2008 shows AWBI has no guidelines for giving grants to animal welfare organisations that are entrusted with the responsibility of sterilising dogs, vaccinating them periodically and providing them shelter.
Steephen cites the instance of Japan, where only two have died of rabies in last 50 years, that too after being bitten in India and the Philippines. Japan does not allow dogs on the street. “Those which are found are put up for adoption. When no one adopts them, they are euthanised. Same is done in the US and Ireland,” he adds. While WHO mandates that at least 80 per cent of dogs need to be vaccinated annually to break the cycle of transmission, only 2.4 per cent have been vaccinated by AWBI over the past 10 years.
And here is another report, on a much smaller sample:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866364/
In the first ever intervention on human-animal conflict, an attempt is being made to tackle the monkey and dog population in MP living areas in Delhi. Nowhere else.
My conclusion:
India has the money. We never lack money. What we lack is policy decisiveness and the willingness to understand that ABC rules were designed to fail. The only people who suffer because of the so called "Dog Lovers" are the dogs.
There are 3 policy interventions that are necessary:
1. Make animal breeding for sale illegal. It is inhuman and cruel and works against adoption of strays.
2. Create animal shelters. Make it mandatory for NGOs to create and sustain animal shelters to continue to receive govt funds. There are enough NGOs and enough private people will support if there is genuine effort. If there are qualified vets available for luxury pet spas, there are enough vets for the govt's sterilisation program too.
3. Do NOT force people to adopt colony strays. Fear of dogs is a real thing. And when there are 4 or 5, dogs WILL display pack behaviour and hunt. It is their nature. So people will be attacked. We cannot fault the dogs for their natural behaviour.
