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| Srinagar has 2 lakh stray dogs | | Canines kill humans as helpless Municipality watches | | Sikander Khan
Jammu, Jan 3: On January 15 last year the Srinagar Municipality decided to poison 3000 stray dogs to get the people of Srinagar city rid of rabid dogs. The war against the dogs was not launched. On March 13 the Municipality told the concerned people that it was going to kill 100000 stray dogs in the coming months. But dogs continue to flourish and human beings continue to die a painful death due to dog bites.
As per official data the anti-rabies clinic at Srinagar's SMHS hospital registers 4000 cases of dog bites every year. There has been a staggering increase in the dog bite cases. In 2005, these totaled 4311, while the cases added up to 2,873 in 2006, 3434 in 2007 and 4035 in 2008. In the past two years, the SMHS clinic has registered four deaths following dog bites. They include a 4-year old child of south Kashmir’s Kokernag area.
Over the past two decades, the animal rights activists have managed to prevent poisoning of stray dogs by Srinagar’s Municiapl Corporation. A scribe who agitated the matter repeatedly was shown letter of Maneka Gandhi who had threatened the corporation of dire consequences incase the dogs were poisoned.
The recent judgement of the Mumbai high Court has encouraged the Muncicipal authorities. The court has allowed killing of stray dogs if they pose threat to human life. And, according to insiders, poisonous drugs worth Rs 20 lakh have been bought from outside the state. But the war against stray dogs has been delayed for unknown reasons.
According to Municipal officials there are more than two lakh stray dogs in the city of Srinagar alone. The Municipality, media reports suggest, needs 5000 dogs for scavenging. What will happen to the rest? The officials privately admit that castratating the dogs, as suggested by Maneka Gandhi, was a cumbersome process and the best option to have an optimal level of canine population is go for the kill.
But disagreement of the scientists and veterinary doctors perhaps delayed the `noble job.’ Former Commissioner, Farooq Renzu called scientists and veterinary doctors to discuss ways to curb the menace. In the meeting, experts identified sterilization or Animal Birth Control (ABC) as the best method to contain the dog population. And to prevent the dog-bite victims from contracting rabies, the dogs, experts said, should be injected with the anti-rabies vaccine.
“This is the only scientific way to deal with this problem,” Renzu said. “We can’t just catch the dogs and throw them somewhere else”.
Going around the city with a gun and shooting every dog in sight, Renzu said, is also not an option for the SMC.
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