(IN): Canine record: 35 bites in a day, 40 in three days

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Link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070919/asp/jharkhand/story_8333194.asp

 

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Canine record: 35 bites in a day, 40 in three days

OUR CORRESPONDENT**

 

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Jamshedpur, Sept. 18: *Even a most die-hard animal activist like Maneka

Gandhi would perhaps not find fault with Dhatkidih residents for killing a

dog which had bitten 35 people on one day.

 

A stray dog at Dhatkidih bit as many as 40 people during the past three

days, triggering sensation in the locality. The black dog had bitten as many

as 35 persons in a single day on Monday, sending the locals in a tizzy.

 

After finding no way out, frenzied locals hunted for the dog, and killed it

with sticks and boulders near Tata Main Hospital last evening.

 

What was worse was that all the victims were extremely poor, and not able to

foot the bill for the anti-rabies vaccine — the total cost of which is

somewhere around Rs 2,000.

 

Though Jusco had taken steps to control the population of stray dogs in

Jamshedpur, reports of the canine menace do come in from different parts of

Jamshedpur intermittently.

 

Sheikh Feku, one of the victims of this particular dog's bite, said he was

sitting on Sonar Line at Dhatkidh when he suddenly spotted a black dog

coming toward him. " When I saw the dog, I thought it must be mad, but before

I could move, the dog bit me at my left leg, " said Feku, an octogenarian.

 

Feku's daughter, Yatan Bibi, said family members rushed the victim to the

MGM Medical College and Hospital, where the doctor at the emergency ward

gave him an injection, and handed them a prescription of medicine. " The

doctor has asked my father to take as many as five vaccines, each costing Rs

350, " said the woman, adding that she did not know how to collect the money.

 

 

Another victim, Mazhar Hussain, a resident of Radio Maidan, Dhatkidih, went

to a medical clinic and got an ATS, but the doctor suggested him to take

five vials of anti-rabies vaccines for avoiding complications

 

Local residents said the dog attacked local residents and passers-by,

including students and duty-goers.

 

" The dog was on a biting spree since Saturday afternoon, but it came into

the limelight when so many people fell prey to its bite, " a resident said.

 

Subhasis Das, a doctor who runs a clinic in Dhatkidih, said he suspected

many dog-bite victims avoided any effective treatment due to poverty and

ignorance about the consequences of getting bitten by a stray dog.

 

" The government should ensure free distribution of the anti-rabies vaccine,

if it continues the ban on the killing of stray dogs, " said the doctor.

 

A spokesman of Jusco, which looks after the matters related to the stray dog

populace in Jamshedpur, said they had been making more street dogs

sterilised so as to limit their population.

 

 

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