BEWARE OF STRAY DOGS !

I have never been in good terms with dogs. Because my experiences with them were not so good. Whenever I come across with a dog, it rattles me. I never had a pet. It was the stray dogs that always puts me in trouble.

 Touchwood, I was never bitten, but there have been a couple of situations where I was encountered with an angry stray dog. So whenever I see a dog, especially a stray dog, those incidents comes in my mind. I know there'll be a lot of people with similar experiences. Its a reality of Indian streets. 

There are many countries with the same issue but, India has the most number of stray dogs.

An estimated 35 million stray dogs live in India and according to World Health Organisation (WHO), India faces about 18,000 to 20,000 cases of rabies every year. 

According to the WHO report, an estimated 45% of all deaths from rabies occur in South- East Asia out of which about 36% of the world’s deaths from rabies happen in India itself.

Every year, we can find so many cases regarding the issue in newspapers and in various media. Children, school students and pedestrians were attacked by pack of stray dogs. Running behind two wheelers causes accidents. Also there were cases where the pack of stray dogs killed a kid. In 2018, around 12 children were killed by dogs in Uttar Pradesh. 

The biggest reason behind this issue is open garbage. Stray dogs rely on garbage while hunting for eatables. Mainly the waste from the slaughter houses, which are dumped in open spaces.

Killing of dogs and euthanasia is not the solution for controlling the stray dogs. The killing of dogs has been banned since 2001. 

In November 2016, the Supreme Court ordered the Kerala government to stop the vigilante from the slaughter of stray dogs.

  Government has to come up with a large scale programs that can deal with the problem. In India, funding for animal control programs are less and the NGOs dealing with it are less. Waste management is very important regarding the issue. 

We lack programs dealing with animal control. A system should be established for catching, neutering and private shelters. Atleast make arrangements for keeping garbage in bins. Even now, in this time of pandemic, we can find the streets dominated by stray dogs. 

Politicians and officials who travels in big cars might not understand the menace by stray dogs. Anyway it has to be controlled.

                                                                                    References:

▪️ Ministry of Environment website

▪️BBC News

▪️ Economic Times 

▪️ Wikipedia

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