Humane approach to combat rabies in CMC areas:

Beware of rabies, death lurks

By Ranil Wijayapala

The Rabies Ordinance of 1896 and the Dog Registration Ordinance of 1908, the two pieces of legislation as amended in 1958, very clearly defines the term stray dog as any dog which is not being led by the owner or not under the control of the owner as a stray dog.

The centuries old enactments, the only legislation to control dog population and rabies in the country clearly stipulates that no stray dog should be found in places defined as public places.

However today many stray dogs could be seen in rural and urban areas alike while the public fear about the spread of rabies is fast growing as it has become real hazard to them.

Although the law underlines, that no stray dog should be found in public places, people are rather confused as to why the law enforcement authorities, have failed to implement the law regarding the stray dogs. Earlier there were instances, where some local authorities had seized the stray dogs.

Authorities implementing the law are of opinion that the two enactments, are very powerful in controlling the stray dogs and the rabies menace in the country as the law defines even a dog who is not under the control of the owner as a stray dog and seize it at any time.

The 1958 amendment to the ordinance empowers the respective local authorities as elected bodies to make their by-laws on the charges and penalties on dog registration.

According to the existing law the owner has to pay a registration fee of Rs.5 for a male dog and Rs.7.50 for a female dog within the Colombo city, and only 25 cents outside Colombo.

Netting-in stray dogs for vaccination

Sterilization of female dogs by veterinary surgeons of the BPT

Educating schoolchildren on rabies Pix courtesy: Blue Paw Trust

Dr. S.D. Eleperuma, the Chief Veterinary Surgeon of the Colombo Municipal Council said the CMC seized 300 to 400 dogs per month within the city limits during 1960.

“Every year we disposed of 3,000 to 5,000 stray dogs using gas chambers” he said.

If a stray dog is seized by the local authority it has to be kept under the control of the Local Authority for 72 hours and if no person makes a claim to the dog the local authority is enforced to dispose of it, the law states.

It was a bitter experience for Municipal authorities that the dogs seized were kept for 72 hours at the dog pound at Magazine road, Borella and then put into the gas chambers to dispose them, of.

“In the gas chambers it takes seven to eight minutes for the dogs to die. Healthy dogs won’t die when the carbon monoxide rate is not that high and they die howling and growling inside the gas chambers. Later the dead bodies are put into the incinerator. The mechanism adopted by local authorities to seize astray dogs relates many and many tales of inhumanity involved. There were instances of dogs dying when they are noosed.

But there were times when health authorities used to put the stray dogs directly into gas chambers without keeping them for 72 hours to enable the owners to turn up.

“Sometimes some authorities used to kill stray dogs using a poisonous stick and jacking it to the dogs”, he said.

“The CMC resorted only to gas chambers”, Dr. Eleperuma added.

There had been instances reported when the dog vans were assaulted by the people as they were against those unauthordox practices.

It poses problem for the authorities, whether it was an effective way of getting rid of the stray dogs and controlling the spread of rabies in the country.

“While we were destroying 4000 to 5000 dogs per year we had registered 50 to 60 rabid cases confirmed by the Medical Research Institute, within the Colombo city limits”, Dr. Eleperuma said.

“That was not at all successful as we were getting three to four confirmed rabid cases per month. So we have to think afresh regarding the methods we used to control rabies”, he added.

The cityfolk, Animal Welfare Organisations, and dog lovers exerted pressure on Colombo Municipal Council and the Government to consider new methods of dealing with the dogs instead of killing them. The number of stray dogs killed was reduced during the Mayoralty of Prasanna Gunawardena.

As a mark of respect for the 2550 Sambuddha Jayanthi, the Minister of Local Government instructed all the 300 odd Local authorities before the Vesak to abandon killing stray dogs in haphazard manner with the objective of controlling rabies.“He did not impose a full ban. he said not to kill the stray dogs with the objective of controlling rabies”, Dr. Eleperuma added.

He advocated vaccination of all dogs against rabies plus sterilisation of female dogs to reduce the dog population in the country instead of killing stray dogs. However, it became a rather difficult job for the Local Authorities to comply with the Government policy regarding the stray dogs.

A organisation called, Blue Paw Trust, consisting of number of veterinary surgeons and some volunteers, however came to assist the Colombo Municipal Council.

The Blue Paw Trust is an organisation funded by the World Society for Protection of Animals. It has its headquarters in London, under the umbrella of World Health Organisation. They have the necessary technical expertise, veterinary surgeons, animal behaviour scientists and also vehicles and other equipment.

The CMC formed a public-private partnership with the BPT in 2006.

the local authorities had no idea about the number of stray dogs. The CMC estimated that there were around 10,000 home dogs in the city.

The CMC had estimated about 25,000 to 30,000 stray dogs for sterilisation, taking into account the consideration, one dog for every eight people in the Asian region.

The Blue Paw Trust came up with a comprehensive package to implement the humane method of dog sterilisation plus vaccination and a scientific count was conducted to ascertain the number of stray dogs.

The CMC Veterinary Department and the BPT took up the challenge of vaccinating and sterilising stray dogs estimated around 5,000.Instead of the nylon rope a nylon net was introduced to catch stray dogs enabling the dog catchers to carry the dog anywhere and vaccinate or sterilise it.

“We conducted the sterilisation operation in the area where dogs were found and we concentrated on areas such as North, Mattakkuliya where dogs were found in large numbers, Eleperuma said.

The real operation was started in June 2008, after a pilot project was conducted for over six months.

“Upto now Blue Paw Trust together with the CMC have sterilised more than 4,500 female dogs. We have sterilised them and left them back in the same area”, he said.It was after educating the community about the project the semi owners of the stray dogs were identified and female stray dogs were sterilised and handed back to them.

“By doing 4500 sterilisations we have prevented 135,000 pups being born over these two to two and half years”, Eleperuma said.

The Municipality continues the practice of going from house to house and vaccinate the household dogs.

In 2008 the CMC had vaccinated 6446 dogs and in 2009 the number increased to 8006. In the first half of this year it has vaccinated 5585 household dogs.

“The BPT has vaccinated more than 2700 stray dogs for the first half of this year”, he said.

“We have observed a tremendous progress in the rabies control programme within the city as the number of rabid cases came down drastically dariy the past few years”, he said.

In 2007 the number of rabies positive cases reported in the Colombo city was 33 and 17 in 2008. “But in 2009 we had 25 cases of rabies within the city which was included mongoose and monkeys and other animals” as well.

“This programme has brought positive results, You can’t do miracles. You have to vaccinate the dogs whether it is your dog or stray dogs and also you have to control the dog population by sterilising the female dogs”, he said.

This exercise has also prevented the unwanted killing of dogs.

A follow-up observation count undertaken by the BPT has shown that the number of lactating bitches and the pups in the streets has also come down drastically giving a strong indication that female sterilisation has produced positive results”, he said.

“Now we have a more mature dog population which is virtually static. These dogs are getting older and after three to four years they will have a natural death. The number of pups is becoming lesser and lesser.”

Therefore, we had to raise awareness among the community not to dump their pups into the streets. If we have their female dogs also sterilised, it will cut down the number of unwanted pups.“Now the news is spreading that in Colombo there is a pilot project called Rabies Eradication and Dog Population Control Project which is the largest project undertaken by WSPA”, Eleperuma added.

“But, we have not altogether eradicated rabies from Colombo city. Our figures are very encouraging. The Government aim is to eradicate rabies in 2016.

Our target is to eradicate rabies from Colombo by 2014. I think we are not far away from that target” Eleperuma said.

Despite the success of this project, Dr. Eleperuma is still to cautious about the situation and appeals to the public to admit themselves to Colombo National Hospital if they are bitten, scratched or licked by an unknown dog.

“Whether you are keeping a dog, cat, deer or whatever animals give them the rabies vaccination and keep them indoor, tied he said.