(LK) Inquiry reg.rabid or rabies-suspected dogs

[Guest guest]

As we shared earlier: Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapakse has send out a

directive to all local governments:

dogs should not be killed, rabies and stray-population must be controlled

through sterilization and vaccination.

While in Kandy we are dealing woth a stubborn, bent on killing Municipal

council, which we keep in bay by an ongoing court-case, in most provinces and

also in Colombo the local authorities respect the President's order. However

even from Colombo we hear reports of occassional killings in cases of

rabies-suspected dogs. When Sagarika Rajakarunayake from Sattva Mithuru checked

on these instances, she found, that many pet-dogs and community-dogs have been

killed without any varification whether these dogs had been bitten by the

rabies-suspected dog. On the other hand, dogs, which actually have been bitten,

if they were not present at the time the killers arrived, may carry the disease

now to other locations. This random killing, just to show, that the authorities

" do something " is certainly not the proper response to a case of a rabid dog and

it could undermine the President's order, if carried out without proper checking

(checking the brain of the dead rabies-suspect to see whether really there are

rabies viruses present) and without inquiring which are the dogs, which have

been actually bitten by the (confirmed) rabid dog.

 

We would like to know, how ABC programmes in India are dealing with such a

situation? What are the aggreements you all have made with your municipal

corporations and how are they practically handled?

 

Please share your experiences and suggestions with us.

 

Thank you

 

Padma