STRAY DOGS IN BANGLORE

Rabies

I demand to know from where Stephen got his figure of India adding 17.6 million rabies cases annually. Various WHO reports which any day are more reliable than Stephen's figurers categorically state that the number of rabies related deaths in India is 19,000 every year. You cannot have 17.6 million rabies cases and only 19,000 deaths because rabies is a fatal disease, be it for humans or for dogs.

Stephen has conveniently hidden the fact that Bangalore city has NOT reported A SINGLE human rabies death since 2003. The deaths in the city's Isolation Hospital were from the surrounding districts and states such as Andhra Pradesh.

Dog Bites

Let's take dog bite statistics – in the month of February 2007, Bangalore reported 942 cases of dog bites. Nearly 40 per cent of the bites are by pet dogs and the rest by strays. That makes it 565 bites by strays. In a population of 7.5 million, that is a bite rate of a ridiculous 0.00753 per cent! And not all bite victims die. More children die in Bangalore from road accidents.

Chandra Layout Incident

Stephen has chosen to speak to Mr. Krishna Bhat on the killing of the little girl, Sridevi. Unlike what Mr. Bhat claims, the incident did not happen on a busy road and in front of 'so many onlookers' In fact, the incident happened at 0645 in the morning and not a single person witnessed how the attack started. It's only on hearing the noise that people rushed and tried rescuing her. It's patently false to claim that it happened on a busy road.

NGOs

The line on the well funded NGOs is totally unwarranted and defamatory in nature. The animal NGOs in Bangalore are doing a sterling job despite minimal funding support. Stephen should have enquired about their funding sources before passing such defamatory comments. Nothing stopped him from scrutinizing their accounts before claiming they are well funded.

Animal Birth Control (ABC) Program

Stephen's inference that the ABC program is ineffective is totally unfounded. The stray dog population has shown a declining trend (see further down this for the actual numbers) and there are far fewer puppies on the road now than there were say 10 years back. If rabies is an indicator, the program has been unqualified success. One also has to remember that the ABC program was implemented only in the 100 wards of the Bangalore Municipal Corporation and not in the surrounding City Municipal Council (CMC) and Town Municipal Councils (TMC) areas. Almost half of Bangalore's population lives in these areas.

And it's not the NGOs who have brought stray dogs into the purview of The Prevention of Cruelty Act, 1960. It's a Central Act and has been in force even before animal welfare movement took off in India. The Central Act overrides are state and municipal laws on the subject.

Stray Dog Numbers

In a study done by the Animal Husbandry Department of Karnataka, the stray dog numbers in Bangalore was 1,20,000 in 1994 and in a survey conducted by the same department in 2003, the numbers had come down to 56,000. In the year 2000, the number was 80,000 according to the People for Animals (PFA).

I demand that you set the record the straight in the next issue and I am willing to provide any information to Stephen David to do so. I can set up meetings with the concerned animal welfare organizations who are active in the field. Stephen is welcome to call me on my mobile anytime.