Sir,
Since times immemorial, the dog has been the most faithful animal and companion of man and man has always lived in co-existance with dogs. But with their population burgeoning fast,the menace of stray dogs in cities and towns has assumed alarming proportions across the world and our state is no exception. According to newspaper reports, 32,067 dog bite cases have been reported from Kashmir valley alone since 2014.It is a common sight to see packs of dogs on every chowk of cities growling at the passers by, feeding on garbage dumps or playing or fighting with eachother ferociously .Their ferocity increases when they have mating season.The school going children and rag pickers are their prime victims but they also attack adults,especially ladies or senior citizens when they are fighting or have gathered for food or mating.They also follow the moving two wheelers and there have been some incidents when the bike riders have suffered injuries on account of being chased by the stray dogs.The bitches too may bite anybody to protect their pups from being harmed by the human beings.As the stray dogs are not vaccinated against rabies,there is every possibility of the victims being infected with rabies.
Thus, there is an urgent need to take steps to check the menace of street dogs by controlling their population.The first and foremost way to avoid the menace of stray dogs is to keep the streets and lanes of our cities and towns free from garbage and wastes so that dogs don’t find food at such places and leave that habitat.Other methods such as selective culling,sterlisation or surgical neutering or relocation of dogs etc too. must be tried,of course,in consultation with animal welfare organisations and keeping in view the successful methods employed by other countries to control the surging population of dogs so that dogs donot bite innocent children.But in no case should they be treated cruelly by being poisoned or beaten to death.NGOs and other organisations too must be roped in to control the population of dogs so that we have stable and healthier population of dogs and children can play or move about or play freely in the streets without any fear of being beaten by them. Moreover,the government ought to ensure sufficient stock of anti rabies vaccines for dogbite victims in various hospitals in order to provide timely treatment to the victims.
Yours etc….
Ashok Sharma,
Flat No 4,
Housing Colony,
Udhampur.
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