Newindpress on Sunday: Don't Bite the Dog... by Nanditha Krishna

[Guest guest]

http://newindpress.com/Sunday/colItems.asp?ID=SEV20070308084808

3/11/07

Columns by Nanditha Krishna

 

Don't bite the dog...

 

The recent death of a child from a dog attack is both shocking and

tragic. It is inexcusable that we cannot prevent an avoidable

tragedy. Governments immediately shift the blame on the law, which

advocates Animal Birth Control (ABC) rather than killing, on NGOs who

do not sterilise and vaccinate enough dogs, and so on. Yet no

government will admit that poor governance is responsible for the

child's death.

 

Waste dumps are excellent breeding sites for a variety of wildlife,

including rats, flies, mosquitoes, disease-carrying bacteria and

dogs. Governments must manage solid waste. Every city has a suburban

waste dump which breeds disease. This time the problem was a dog.

Next time, it may be plague borne by invisible rats. Stray dogs are a

rare sight in the West because there are no visible garbage dumps.

 

Illegal meat and broiler chicken shops abound everywhere in India.

" Fresh meat/chicken sold here " is a common sign on boards, with live

animals beneath, to be slaughtered before the buyer, leaving a trail

of blood and bones. Which dog would turn down a juicy morsel? But the

authorities turn a blind (and corrupt) eye. The common factor in the

recent incidents of dog attacks was the slaughter house, with illegal

dumping yards at the sites of the attacks.

 

Governments expect NGOs to solve the problem of stray dogs. NGOs must

catch, spay/neuter and vaccinate ALL the stray dogs in India. If so,

what are governments for? According to the Animal Welfare Board of

India (AWBI), the number of NGOs working in the field of animal

welfare is 2,500, out of which about 100 are doing ABC. The rest run

goshalas. The annual budget of the AWBI is about Rs 10 crores, out of

which a fraction is available for ABC, an amount which must be shared

by NGOs from all over India. State governments have abdicated their

responsibility by putting the burden of controlling the dog

population on NGOs, threatening to kill dogs instead. To prevent the

cruelty involved in killing (electrocution or being beaten to death),

NGOs have accepted this unfair responsibility and taken over the

government's duties. Why quiz the CUPA ****representative on the

reason why ABC had not yet reached the Bangalore suburb? The answer

was known: there is no NGO there.

 

NGOs cannot be an alternative to governance. NGOs can only supplement

official efforts, particularly at grass-root levels. What would

happen in North Indian towns where NGOs are as rare or as corrupt as

the government? State governments must take up ABC on a war footing

and provide funds if the dog population is to be controlled. Instead,

the Commissioner, ****BBMP, promises to catch and kill " ferocious

dogs and leaders of dog packs " . Tragically, only the docile, friendly

dogs will be caught and killed.

 

After years of killing dogs, only to see their population increase,

World Health Organization (WHO) made some obvious and important

discoveries: that the population of dogs was directly proportionate

to the food available, meaning that no rubbish heaps and

slaughter-house wastes means no dogs; that killing dogs leaves a

vacuum, to be filled by more dogs who breed and increase the

population; that the only way to control dog populations and rabies

is by sterilising and vaccinating the animals and returning them to

their home territories. Dogs are territorial animals and will not

permit the entry of an intruder. Sterilisation makes them docile,

since the hormonal urge to mate, and its consequent ferocity, is

missing. Chennai and San Francisco saw the first successful

implementation of ABC.

 

In The State of Animals (2005) edited by Deborah J. Salem and Andrew

N Rowan, " In Delhi, a concerted effort at dog removal killed a third

of the stray dogs, with no reduction in dog population. " In the early

1970s, the stray dog population in Chennai was so high that, in spite

of killing several thousand dogs a year (30,000 dogs in 1995 alone) -

resulting in a thriving industry of dog leather bags, footwear and

wallets - the population went up geometrically. Mysore is killing

dogs on a mass scale, yet the dog population keeps increasing.

 

Every city and village has a veterinary hospital with under-worked

doctors, most of who receive a full day's salary, work for a few

hours and take off the rest of the day for private practice. They

should be made to sterilise dogs. Unfortunately, AWBI funds are

insufficient. Every city, town and village needs to take up ABC

simultaneously. In their paper Rabies and Rabies-related viruses,

Florence Cliquet and E Picard-Meyer have observed that the ABC

programme in India, if conducted regularly, " should lead to a

stabilisation of the stray dog population within five to seven years. "

 

In Chennai, the incidence of rabies went down from 120 in 1996, when

a full-scale ABC programme was launched, to 5 in 2003 and 2004. Today

the rabies cases are limited to those brought in from rural areas.

What 100 years of killing (1896-1996) could not achieve, ten years of

ABC has. In Jaipur and Kalimpong, the number of rabies cases declined

from 10 in 1999 and 2000 to nil since 2001-2002. The success of ABC

in these cities means it does work.

 

Some state governments and municipalities have taken a pro-active

role. About 45,000 dogs were sterilised in Ahmedabad municipality in

the last year - the largest number in the country. In Tamil Nadu, the

Urban Development Ministry has instructed all municipalities to carry

out ABC on a war footing and to use their own funds. The money spent

by municipalities to catch and kill dogs should be used for ABC.

 

Dog breeding must be regulated. Anyone with a pedigreed male and

female of the same species starts breeding dogs. If he has a dog of

only one sex, he rents it out for breeding. This goes on in rich

homes and poor huts, for it promises a lucrative, tax-free income

with minimal investment. There is no registration of breeders or

dossier of puppies born. When the animals can no longer breed, they

are abandoned on the streets, where they have to scrounge for food in

the garbage. The stray dogs of Ooty include beautiful Alsatians and

other prized breeds abandoned by breeders. Rats, similarly, are bred

for sale to laboratories. Wait for the next plague.

 

As a mother and a human being, my heart goes out to the parents of

the dead children. But let us not take knee-jerk reactions.

Governments must find sustainable scientific solutions, and ABC has

proven to be successful in controlling dog populations and rabies, if

carried out properly. Don't bite the dog to cover up poor governance.

 

 

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