Rohan Shrivastav
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PANJIM: Following the unfortunate incident wherein a four-year-old boy in Hyderabad succumbed to injuries after he was mauled by a pack of street dogs, questions are being raised on how to prevent such incidents and protect children, senior citizens and pedestrians from aggressive stray dogs.
According to the data available with the Directorate of Health Services, as many as 87,202 dog-bite cases have been reported in the last five years, and this figure shows that on an average, every day 48 incidences of dog-bite takes place in the State.
Children playing outside their homes are attacked by stray dogs, the fear of dogs is so much that a section of senior citizens refrain from going out for morning and evening walks.
These aggressive stray dogs can be seen chasing two-wheelers and cars, and many times causing accidents.
As per the estimation of Mission Rabies, the population of stray dogs in the State is little over 70,000 and is fast growing; however the records available with the Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, only 27,362 dogs have been sterilised for birth control till date under the Goa Small Animal Rescue Management Scheme which was launched in 2015.
“Dogs exhibit territorial behaviour. Stray dogs’ population is growing but they are not able to find food and an empty stomach makes a dog fierce. Mass scale sterilisation is the only solution, and government alone cannot succeed in it, stakeholders, others including individuals have to step in,” said Sancheeta Banerjee Rodrigues, a dog lover.
“It is the duty of the State through the local bodies to provide shelter and food for all the stray dogs across the State. Dog biting children and creating nuisance is all because of lapse on the part of administration. Local bodies know what to do but they are not bothered,” Greg D’Monte, a former cricketers and a retired consumer sales head of an oil company residing in a housing society at Kadamba Plateau, said.
Dr Murugan Appupillai, director of education, India, at Mission Rabies said that dog attacks can be prevented by creating awareness among people particularly children and controlling food wastage.
“Dogs have a natural prey drive to chase moving objects and things, kids should be taught to stand still in such situation. We have our education programme where we ensured children and adults knew the dangers of rabies, how to avoid being bitten by a dog and what they need to do if they do get bitten. If rabies affected dog bites on a person’s head then it is a serious case as the virus travel fast to the brain,” Dr Appupillai said.
Minister for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services Nilkanth Halarnkar said that feeding on roads is one of the prime reasons for stray dog menace.
“Hyderabad incident is extremely tragic. The general public should do their bit. There is a Supreme Court ruling prohibiting feeding of stray dogs in public spaces and we have time and again appealed to the people to abide by this direction of the Court but people don’t listen to our request,” Halarnkar said.
