Updated Bangalore ABC & bite statistics

[Guest guest]

This is an updated version of a similar statement I

distributed on March 3, incorporating the very latest dog bite date

available from both the U.S. and India.

 

 

The latest estimate of dog bites receiving hospital treatment

in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control &

Prevention in Atlanta, is 4.7 million per year, from a population

of 70 million dogs and 300 million humans.

 

Thus 7% of U.S. dogs bite someone seriously enough each year

that the bites receive hospital treatment, and 1.5% of the human

population are bitten seriously: one person per 63.8.

 

The Association for Prevention and Control of Rabies

estimates that 1.74 million people receive hospital treatment for

bites per year in India, out of populations of 25 million dogs and

1.1 billion people.

 

Thus 7% of Indian dogs bite someone seriously enough each

year that the bites receive hospital treatment, and 1.58% of the

human population are bitten seriously: one person per 63.2.

 

These are substantially identical rates.

 

In both nations, the public health authorities estimate that

only about one bite victim in 10 actually seeks medical attention,

chiefly because most bites cause only trivial injuries. This is of

much greater concern in India than in the U.S., as India is still a

nation with endemic rabies. The U.S. largely eradicated canine

rabies nearly 50 years ago by vigorously promoting dog vaccination.

 

-------------------------------

 

An intelligent assessment of the street dog situation in Bangalore

should begin with several basic comparisons.

 

The present population of street dogs, rates of dog attacks, and

rates of rabies occurrence must be compared with the rates prior to

the introduction of the Animal Birth Control programs, and to the

present norms of India.

 

In that regard, we find that that from the introduction of

electrocution to kill dogs more than 70 years ago, until the start

of the ABC programs, the street dog populations only continued to

grow in proportion to the numbers of humans and amount of food

refuse left by humans, no matter how many dogs were killed.

 

Since the introduction of the ABC programs, the number of dogs has

fallen 21%, from circa 70,000 to just over 56,000.

 

Sterilizing dogs is in effect surgically immunizing them against

pregnancy. Just as it is necessary to vaccinate at least 70% of an

animal population to halt the spread of disease, in order to effect

any reduction in the dog population, it is necessary to sterilize

at least 70%.

 

The Bangalore ABC programs appear to have reached the 70% target

very quickly. On January 14 and 15, 2007, I personally canvassed

several representative Bangalore neighborhoods on foot, counting

dogs, finding that at least 70% of the dogs had been sterilized in

all of them, ranging upward of 90% in some areas served by CUPA.

 

I found unsterilized dogs and puppies in only two types of

neighborhood. One was areas where large numbers of migrant

construction workers were camping, cooking outdoors, and had

brought dogs with them from the countryside. The other was areas

which appeared to be within the city, but were in fact beyond the

official city limits and the boundaries of the areas served by the

ABC programs.

 

I found large congregations of dogs exclusively in the vicinity of

meat shops.

 

Concerning rates of dog attack, at the above-stated

rates, the expected number of attacks in Bangalore, a city of more

than six million people, should be more than 95,000.

 

Since Bangalore has only 25,000 bite cases to treat per year, the

ABC programs appear to be preventing 74% of the caseload that should

otherwise be expected.

 

Concerning rabies risk, the ABC programs appear to have completely

eliminated canine rabies in the areas of Bangalore that they have

covered, as have the ABC programs of Chennai, Jaipur, and

Visakhapatnam, among others, leaving a problem only in the areas

that have not been covered.

 

As the Bangalore ABC programs are clearly very successful in

reducing dog numbers, dog attacks, and rabies incidence, the

appropriate response of public officials to the recent dog attack

fatalities should be to reinforce the ABC approach by permanently

closing meat shops that do not properly dispose of their waste, and

to provide additional funding and facilities to extend the ABC

programs to the areas not presently served.

 

In addition, Bangalore public officials should resolutely and

outspokenly defend the ABC programs against irrational attacks from

local demagogues who are calling for killing dogs, despite the

overwhelming weight of evidence that this approach does not work,

historically never has worked, and never will work.

 

In that regard, I must note that historically, in many parts of

the world, corrupt local political bosses have used a purported

need to kill dogs as a pretext for putting their personal goondas

and bag men on the public payroll. In the U.S., humane societies

began doing animal control work more than 100 years ago as part of a

movement to reform local politics.

 

In view of this history, I believe the citizens of Bangalore

should very closely inspect the activities and motives of the

politicans who are now calling for hiring dog-killers. Just who do

they really want to hire, why, and what is the underlying motive?

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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