CNN animal alert: 100,000 dogs given second chance at life

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CNN Alerts: animal alert

 

100,000 dogs given second chance at life

03/07/08 10:19 AM, EST

Authorities in Indian-Administered Kashmir's main city have canceled

plans to poison nearly 100,000 stray dogs as part of an anti-rabies

program, an official said Friday after protests from animal rights

groups.

Read the full story at

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/07/kashmir.dogs.ap/index.htm

 

100,000 dogs given second chance at life

* Story Highlights

* Kashmir authorities decide not to exterminate 100,000

dogs in anti-rabies drive

* Plan halted after protests from animal rights groups

* Officials say they will work on a plan with welfare

groups to sterilize stray dogs

SRINAGAR, Indian-Administered Kashmir (AP) -- Authorities in

Indian-Administered Kashmir's main city have canceled plans to poison

nearly 100,000 stray dogs as part of an anti-rabies program, an

official said Friday after protests from animal rights groups.

 

Local officials would instead work on a plan to sterilize the strays

in cooperation with animal welfare groups and a team from the federal

environment ministry, said Syed Haq Nawaz, commissioner of the

Srinagar Municipal Corporation.

 

" We're not going ahead with this poisoning. Not at all, " Nawaz said.

 

About 500 dogs had already been killed by Friday, according to Dr.

Riyaz Ahmad, the Srinagar health officer who first revealed the plan

to poison the city's nearly 100,000 stray dogs with strychnine.

 

India has the world's highest rabies fatality rate and has struggled

with ways to control the millions of stray dogs that live on its

streets, a problem exacerbated by its rapidly growing cities and

slums.

 

Nawaz gave no reasons for the change in plans but animal-rights

activists had vowed to go to court to try to stop the slaughter,

calling it inhumane and a violation of a law banning cruelty to

animals.

Activists welcomed Friday's announcement.

 

" It's a welcome step that they have given up the idea of poisoning

dogs. They should create awareness that not every dog is rabid, " said

Javaid Iqbal Shah, the deputy head of the Srinagar Society to Prevent

Cruelty to Animals.

 

India accounts for more than 60 percent of the estimated 35,000

annual global rabies deaths, according to the World Health

Organization, and stray dogs are often blamed.

 

In some areas, dogs form feral packs that have attacked people.

However, other strays are " community pets, " semi-tame animals who are

cared for and fed by local residents.

 

Other Indian cities have also struggled to curb the stray problem.

 

India's high-tech hub of Bangalore called off a drive to slaughter

strays last year following allegations that untrained workers were

stoning, strangling and beating the dogs to death.

 

In New Delhi, one city councilor suggested shipping the country's

strays to Korea, where dog meat is considered a delicacy.

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Find this article at:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/07/kashmir.dogs.ap/index.html

 

 

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