If you are a person who loves dogs, you probably should ensure anti-rabies vaccination to the street dogs instead of feeding them.
The stray dogs never depend on humans to get food and can track or hunt their food but vaccination is a part where humans can play a significant role and ensure a rabies free country. This was the opinion shared by experts at an event co-organised by the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, Punjab Department of local Government and Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO) to discuss key issues relating to dog-bite and rabies prevention.
Setting out to make Punjab and the union territory of Chandigarh, a model state for rabies and dog-bite management, the officers from Punjab local Government Department, MC Chandigarh and mediapersons met at the “Media Roundtable on Human-Dog Conflict in Punjab – an Assessment into Key Issues and Solutions” here on Thursday.
The workshop recognised that there is a need for effective statewide implementation of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme by all local bodies with a statewide monitoring committee could help ensure progress in Punjab.
In addition to ABC, initiatives which are in line with WHO’s One Health model, like mass Anti-Rabies Vaccination (ARV) of street dogs, education on the prevention of dog bites and rabies, and counselling of dog-bite patients in hospitals were proposed for statewide implementation.
Speaking on the issue of stray dog menace in the city, Chandigarh Municipal Corporation Superintendent of Slaughterhouses (who is in charge of the UT’s ABC-ARV programme), Dr MS Kamboj said that the corporation has started counselling of dog-bite patients in its Sector 19 and Sector 38 hospitals, facilitated PEEDU’S PEOPlE which runs the Rabies Free India programme.
“We will also be starting education on dog bite prevention in slums, schools and RWAs very soon” he said.
According to the 19th livestock census (2012), the city had a total of 17600 dogs. It included 9800 domestic dogs and 7800 stray dogs.
The number of stray dogs is estimated at more than 11000 now in the city.
Every year over thousands of cases of dog bites are reported in the city and the problem is severe in the southern sectors and rural areas of the city.
In past three years, the MC has sterilized 11000 stray dogs to control their population and have also started anti-rabies campaign in the city, said Dr Kamboj while adding that no rabies incident has been reported in the city after 2010.
Talking about challenges faced during ABC-ARV programme, Dr Kamboj said that there are some restrictions followed during ABC-ARV programmes which excludes puppies and pregnant female dogs. The ABC-ARV is an ongoing process and needs to be implemented countrywide to deal with the issue of rabies, he added.
PEEDU’s PEOPlE, Director, Inder Sandhu said that the stray dogs never depend on humans to get food. So the animal lovers should ensure to get them vaccinated instead of feeding them, he added. The officials from the Punjab, Department of local Government informed that a directive for mass vaccination in 11 districts has been passed and the government is also considering the proposal for a statewide counseling and education programme with the vision of making Punjab a rabies free state.