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| Sunday, 13 October 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Killing dogs to remove the threat of Rabies : The "call of death" By Jayanthi Liyanage Suburban strays frolicking on the main and by-roads have an uncanny knack of sniffing out an approaching "Municipality Dog-Catcher." One moment there would be a pack of six to seven dogs, lazily sauntering along, or uproariously rollicking with no care of the passing vehicles. Next moment, seconds before you catch the sight of the forbodingly grilled and darkened windows of the Dog Catcher's Van appearing in the horizon, all of them would suddenly vanish from the face of the earth. It would be well over another hour before you see them again, trickling out one by one, and taking a cautious peep from behind a tree clump, or a garbage dump, to make sure that they had tricked the "call of death" once again. Our dog tried but failed, and we never knew, until he went missing for three days while we ransacked his haunts to fathom where he had gone. By the time realisation struck us that he could have been ensnared and transported to the Municipality Dog Compound, he had passed our reach to the shrouded beyonds which only dogs would know. Kolla's short and sweet mongrel life had breathed a violent and agonised last. A friend of a life time was gone. And we had only ourselves to blame for not taking the precautions of providing him with a collar, or an identification licence badge, the only way Kolla could have communicated to his executioners that he was not a 'stray' but, in fact, a pet member of a household, lovingly raised and cared for by all he knew. His death was just incidental, you would say. Like the other 'incidental' deaths of as many as 100,000 stray dogs a year, killed by the local authorities in Sri Lanka, in hope that each death will eliminate one more carrier of that deadly disease, rabies. Hardly surprising when many of the strays, which form the major component of Asia's 25 million dog population, are not immunised against rabies and killing would be the closest method at hand, to deal with the hazard. Do we have to kill such large numbers of strays to fight rabies? Though easily preventable by safe effective vaccines, available for both human and veterinary use, why have we not been able to stop rabies from becoming a health hazard in many parts of the developing Asia, which claims the highest chunk of the 50,000 rabies deaths recorded annually across the world? "Irresponsible dog ownership is the main obstacle," opines Dr. Palitha A. L. Harischandra, Director - Public Health and Veterinary Services, Ministry of Health. "Take our 2.5 million dog population. 50 per cent of them are on the roads during day time, and 90 per cent during night time. This practice of our dog owners allows greater opportunity for very high bite rates among dogs and rabies is transmitted mainly through bites." The local health sector spends an annual Rs. 200,000 treating dog-bites. Though the yearly cost of the present rabies vaccination programmes for humans and dogs are phenomenally high, overstepping the Rs.150 million mark, only a small percentage of dogs eventually get vaccinated. The dog elimination programme has been practised in the country for over 50 years and is clearly not the long-term answer to remove the threat of rabies. The global suffering of companion animals has posed the biggest animal welfare problem in today's world which has an estimated half-a-billion dogs. Uncontrolled breeding and abandoning of excess litter have brought on a population explosion of stray dogs with over 80 per cent of the world's dogs thought to be strays. As Dr. Harischandra points out, transmission of rabies through stray overpopulation is a direct result of human indifference. Owners themselves originate dog destruction as strays are created when owners abandon, cruelly neglect their pets or allow them to roam unvaccinated or breed freely without spaying or nuetering them. To sensitize Sri Lanka to the global trend of eradicating rabies using humane stray dog control methods, Kandy Association for Community Protection and Animal Welfare (KACPAW) and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) held an international conference in Kandy recently, participated by health and local government sectors and followed by workshops for dog catchers. "In many countries, stray animals are indiscriminately caught and killed by a variety of inhumane methods including shooting, poisoning, hanging, gassing and electrocution," said Trevor Wheeler, WSPA's Director for Companion Animals at this venue. "The fact that Sri Lanka has taken the decision to find a long-term humane method of managing this problem is a clear indication of the proactive, compassionate and progressive attitude of the government." "In 2002, we introduced a scheme to vaccinate stray dogs and 30,000 have been vaccinated to date" says Dr. Harischandra. "We need to expand this through all the local authorities by finding vehicles, possibly three wheelers, to transport strays." KMC spoke of its own humane alternative to killing. "We plan to catch stray dogs, bring them to our dog compound at Gohagoda, treat for diseases, vaccinate, sterilize, put a collar for identification and release them back the locale where they were caught," says Dr. S.R. Jayasinghe, Veterinary Surgeon, KMC. "Dogs are territorial animals, " he explains. " If we remove five strays from a location, five more unclean dogs will invade that territory. By putting vaccinated and sterilised dogs back to their own territory, a healthier territory is maintained." National figures of the numbers of stray dogs that were killed last year were not available but in the Central Province more than 20,000 stray dogs were killed and in contrast, only 4,200 dogs were vaccinated. "Sterilization is the permanent solution," affirms Dr. Harischandra. "This places the main responsibility on the vet surgeon. Every local authority has its own vet but some provincial authorities may not have enough funds to employ one." Sterilization also calls for additional funds which the local authorities do not possess at present. Wherever killing of rabid dogs are necessary, euthanasia or instant death through intravenous administration of steroids, is far more preferable to the strychnine poisoning or gassing now carried out by the local authorities. The other provinces could take a cue from the initiative taken by the Central Province and KACPAW for a more sustainable long-term solution for the eradication of rabies. The vicious circle of breeding, abandoning, straying and transmitting rabies could only be arrested by pet owners, through well-planned vaccination and sterilisation in the exercise of responsible pet care. A Child's Plea : The sad death of hundreds of innocent dogs I thought of writing this article because I want to expose a few very cruel people in Sri Lanka. Some cruel and horrible people who work in the Kotte Municipal Council came to the Open University of Sri Lanka on October 7, 2002. Like animal lovers, they left food in the university grounds for all the stray dogs. But these wicked and deceitful people had mixed the poison called cyanide into the food. When the dogs ate this food, they suffered slowly and died. Some University students had pity on the dying dogs and tried to reduce their agony by giving them water to drink. We, as children, hear grown-ups say that there will be no peace when there is cruelty. Think about it. How can we have peace in our hearts and minds when adults are murdering thousands of dogs in our own country? I hope and pray that these people will have no rest and peace till they act more humanly with kindness to animals and human beings. Cat and dog math Rabies transmission to humans: dogs - 96 per cent = 80 per cent strays + 16 per cent domestic animals One pair of dogs and their offspring can, in six years, produce 67,000 puppies. One pair of cats and their offspring can, in nine years, produce 11,606,077 kittens. Are we going to kill them all? Or, humanely prevent the unwanted births by sterilization? |
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