Dog bite menace

The recent disclosure that Mayo Hospital in Lahore alone received 1,796 dog bite cases in 14 months has caused justifiable public alarm and is representative of a trend in every large and mid-sized city in the country, due to city managers' failure to control stray dog populations. What makes this doubly unfortunate is that the problem exists despite regular culling operations — city and provincial governments kill over 50,000 dogs every year. Conversely, while dog culling is legally restricted in Punjab under its Animal Birth Control policy, enforcement of the accompanying sterilisation requirements of the policy has been disgracefully inept, leading to worsening situations.

However, withdrawing the dog culling ban in Punjab is no solution. Culling is ineffective, as can be proven by the negligible impact of the practice on dog bite cases. Unfortunately, the stray dog population is so high that within a few days, any dogs culled will quickly be replaced by new dogs due to a combination of poor sterilisation efforts and dogs being attracted to the mountains of food waste that we generate and improperly dispose of.

Authorities around the country would be wise to invest in the WHO-endorsed Catch-Neuter-Vaccinate-Release (CNVR) method, which has already been successfully piloted in Karachi and has reportedly vaccinated and sterilised tens of thousands of dogs, leading to a visible reduction in both dog-bite outbreaks and the stray population over time.

Public awareness is also important, as improper disposal of food waste not only contributes to dog bite cases but also to several other public health crises, as rats and other pests are also attracted to the food and can act as disease vectors. Punishing improper food waste disposal, improving garbage collection and discouraging the feeding of stray animals would all contribute to improved public health in general.