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response 6: children killed by street dogs
Stray Dogs – Facts
Source – drkrishna@aspick.com
Response: 6 Children killed by Stray Dogs
It was terrible hearing about the children. While I would like further
details before I can make any specific comment, I can only say that all of us who are interested in finding a solution to the issue of street dogs must be aware of certain facts.
One: the killing of dogs on the street has been going on for over a hundred years. In Chennai, for example, first records of dogs being killed (usually shot by the Collector or the Chief of Police) goes back to 1860.
Two: If the reason for this is to control either the number of dogs on the street or the incidence of rabies in humans, it has been a spectacular failure since both have shown a steady rise in spite of greater numbers of dogs being killed each year.
Three: Where ever the killing of dogs have stopped and replaced with a proper sterilize-vaccinate-and-release programme, the incidence of rabies and the number of dogs on the street have shown a decline. In Chennai, the killing stopped completely on a city-wide basis in Sept 1996. From a high of 120 rabies deaths in 1996, the number of deaths has come down to FIVE in 2003. Results in Jaipur, Kalimpong, Vizag, Bangalore and other places where there is an ABC programme in place show similar results.