New Delhi: The Supreme Court recently ordered that stray dogs be moved from Delhi-NCR. A new study from the University of Edinburgh shows that interactions between people and street dogs in India are mostly amicable. The results show that 82% of the interactions that were watched were “uneventful,” meaning that the animals acted either neutral or friendly.
Professor Krithika Srinivasan conducted the study, which discovered that just a small number of these interactions—just 2%—involved aggressive behavior including barking, chasing, or biting. This information is especially important now that the Supreme Court ordered all stray dogs in the Delhi-NCR area to be moved to shelters because there have been more dog bites and rabies cases.
The report says that measures that involve mass removal or culling could be harmful and negate important public health advantages. In India, the number of reported cases of human rabies has dropped by over 75% in the last 20 years, from 274 in 2005 to only 34 in 2022. Mass dog vaccination programs across the country and easier access to post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) are mostly to blame for this progress.
Professor Srinivasan talked about the “vacuum effect,” which happens when vaccinated dogs leave an area and other, typically unvaccinated, canines come in from nearby areas. This change in stable dog populations can make attacks and rabies exposure more likely, which is the opposite of what was done.
A survey done in 15 states between 2022 and 2023 also indicated that the rate of dog attacks in India was 4.7 per 1,000 people, which is lower than the 18.7 per 1,000 rate in Cheshire, UK.
Surveys of public opinion in Chennai, Jaipur, and Malappuram also found that most people wanted compassionate remedies. For example, 86% of people who answered said they supported dog vaccination, and 66% said they supported neutering. It’s interesting to note that more than 70% of those who answered the survey were against culling. This proportion jumped to 77% among people who had been pursued or attacked by stray dogs.
The study supports a community-based, science-led way to handle stray dogs. The suggestions include making PEP available to everyone for free, keeping up immunization programs, improving food waste management, and teaching the public. The study suggests that whereas elimination programs may appear to offer an expedient solution, they are improbable to yield lasting results.