Increasing Incidents of Stray Dog Menace in India

Intro. Image Credit

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1saved_by_Ravi_Gill.jpg, Author - Savrose, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Street_Dog_Pelotas.jpg, Author - Guilherme Tavares from Pelotas, República dos Pampas licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

India leads in many issues that are serious and grave. No country in the world has as many stray dogs as India and there are 3 millions of people contacting rabies which is growing by the day. By the end of century the census reports India will lead in human population as well. India also leads in diabetes and many other diseases which are not so good.

There isn’t any country in the world that suffers from hundreds of millions of free roaming dogs that bite millions of people. The frequent victims of such attacks are small children, old people and motor bikers. According to The Times of India Feb 2014 edition, an estimated 20,000 people die from rabies infection every year which is more than one third of the global rabies toll.

Bunch of stray dogs hide in public parks, street corners, blind alleys and passageways. They bark and howl at night making it difficult for people to sleep peacefully. Morning joggers carry bamboo sticks and bicyclists are at their mercy. You never know when a gang of dogs will assault you. Small kids have a lot to fear to. They are easy targets. People walking their pets are prone to dog’s attacks as the street dogs become aggressive while defending their habitat boundaries. There are many incidents of pet dogs being killed mercilessly by big and hostile street dogs as well.

High Court of Delhi in 2011 passed an order asking the police to provide protection to dogs and dog feeders and has made it a punishable offence in case anyone restricts, prohibits or causes inconvenience to any person feeding a street dog or resorts to removal dislocation or killing of a dog.

The impractical law has contributed to the problem and has its own share of exploding population of stray dogs in India.

While there are many reasons for the cause of population explosion of stray dogs in India the main reasons are attributed to the following –

The animal cruelty act in 2001 forbade killing of dogs and the number of dogs have increased so much that the country has a problem increasing at an alarming rate. Animal activists and fanatics make it difficult to modify the law in any way making it impossible to cater to people demands of protection. Politicians are equally responsible as they have passed the law without thinking the side effects and the counter views of public opinions

The litter and garbage are thrown anywhere and cleaning mechanisms are not in place. Garbage treatment is not done and short cut methods of dumping it in open places and at outskirts are not in any way going to stop dogs from inhabiting such places. The discarded food in garbage attracts dogs from villages, outskirts and the cities are flocked with strays. In absence of fines, people throw anything anywhere with no respect to the environment.

Victims of dog bites are often poor people and tiny tots. The poor often land in city’s public hospitals which have inadequate medical supplies. Small kids are soft targets for big dogs; they are often mauled in parks when a parent or guardian leaves them off guard.

Since littering causes big crowd of dogs pulled in the city, there has to be stringent measures to stop people littering the streets. Hefty fines and punishments need to be introduced.

Animal act has to be refined to cater to the menacing situation. Animal activists and politicians make it tough to alter any existing laws. Common sense should prevail while making such laws, counter views should be considered and the opinions of victims of dog bites should be mulled over.

I would like an amicable solution to the menace. However; keeping the problem unchecked and ignored is increasing