Don’t demonise dogs, there are viable solutions before us

Look at these examples: A 14-year-old boy succumbs to high fever. No medical examination or report, but it is pronounced as being due to rabies and the backstory is that he was bitten by a dog two months earlier. The dog in question is fully vaccinated, healthy and alive.The only evidence of the incident is a video in which the young boy shows no signs whatsoever of rabies. There is no doctor's report, no evidence of any bite or rabies, yet an FIR is filed against the owner of the dog. In another incident of a child in a lift, a pet dog lunges but close ups clearly show the dog’s mouth touched a bag not the child. Following this, dogs in lifts and dogs without muzzles become an issue. Take the latest case. Businessman Parag Desai is admitted in ICU for a head injury and passes away a week later. Suddenly a story starts about how he was fleeing from dogs and fell. No matter that the hospital states that there were no bites or saliva on his body or clothes. No matter that he was a dog lover himself, a regular visitor and donor to animal shelters and completely comfortable around dogs. No matter that the FIR makes no mention of dogs. Reports and talk shows continued to apportion blame for his death on dogs with no evidence to back this up.

Let us move away from the hysteria and look at the facts and figures.

Have dog numbers increased? No. In fact, owing to the animal birth control (ABC) programme, we've never had a smaller, healthier, friendlier street dog population. In fact, when MCD was picking up dogs in the run up to the G20 summit, the New Delhi Municipal Corporation that oversees South Delhi found it was unnecessary to do so as the numbers were negligible and mostly all were sterilised and vaccinated. Figures submitted in Parliament also show a sharp decline in dog population. In Uttar Pradesh, the numbers have halved between 2012 and 2019.

Have dog bites increased? No. Statistics from Pune, Chandigarh, Jammu, Vadodara, Bangalore show that dog bites have declined. Rabies figures have dropped drastically. The government's Mission Rabies site reflects a total of some 850 cases annually nationwide. That is about 0.0000014 % of the population. Goa has been rabies-free for the last three years. Several other states are headed that way.

So why then this sudden demonisation of dogs? There have always been isolated pockets of hate - localised in a few places like Kerala, Noida, Pune, Bangalore and Navi Mumbai. What has happened is that over this last year, they have got a campaign going. Local incidents have been exaggerated, tied together to create a false narrative and repeated ad nauseum to whip up public hostility and fear. Resident welfare association teams have climbed onto the bandwagon. Minor politicians have jumped into the fray as well as some sections of the media. Hitherto friendly dogs are suddenly being chased, beaten, poisoned, burnt, hanged and relocated. Those who feed and care for these dogs are now being abused, threatened, evicted, assaulted and socially boycotted.

Any attempt to inject reason into the debate that feeding dogs helps to sterilise them and feeders are the ones getting the dogs sterilised and vaccinated, is met with derision. There is a refusal to understand, accept and implement solutions. People are just happy to crib, complain and bully.

So, what is the way forward?

The ABC programme is a World Health Organization recommended, tried and trusted method of reducing numbers, ending bites and eliminating rabies.

What is needed is for the government to give it a bigger push through public information messaging, and effective implementing agencies.

More NGOs working in the field need to be recruited, trained and deployed. Resident welfare associations need to become part of the solution and the targeting of dogs and feeders must stop.

Impounding is not an option as the costs of setting up and running such facilities is prohibitive and these end up as cruel prisons and disease centres. In addition, impounded dogs still need to be sterilised.

We already have the solution: Sterilised and vaccinated dogs being fed in their own territories live out their natural lives harmlessly and healthily. With no new puppies being born and the average dog’s lifespan being just 10 years, we are looking at a timebound solution.

The answer is as simple as ABC.

This article is authored by Ambica Shukla, trustee, People for Animals.