Hounded

The experience of India offers Lahore a clear warning. When municipal failure in managing stray dogs escalated into a public health, the Indian Supreme Court was forced to intervene - not to endorse killing, but to reaffirm that sterilisation and vaccination are the only solutions grounded in law and science.

Lahore's stray dog crisis is usually discussed in moments of panic — when a child is bitten, after a video goes viral, in events of public fear spilling onto the streets. The response is equally predictable: calls for culling, hurried municipal action, and official claims that the problem has been "addressed". It never is. Because what Lahore faces is not just an animal problem.

India has already travelled this path. When stray dog incidents escalated across Indian cities, public outrage and municipal inertia eventually drew the Supreme Court into the debate. As Andrew Rowan explains in The Indian Supreme Court Acts on the Stray Dog Issue: Is it a Crisis or an Opportunity?, the Court did not intervene to endorse mass killing. It intervened because humane, science-based dog population control was already the law, and authorities had failed to implement it.

Every year, tens of thousands of dog-bite cases are reported across Punjab, with Lahore accounting for a substantial share. Rabies, a disease that is almost 100 per cent fatal once symptoms appear, continues to claim lives in Pakistan despite being entirely preventable. This is not merely a municipal inconvenience. It is a constitutional concern.

Article 9 of Pakistan's Constitution guarantees the right to life, a provision repeatedly interpreted by the superior courts to include the right to health and safety. Article 14 protects human dignity, which is compromised when citizens are exposed to preventable disease and fear in public spaces. Article 38 obligates the state to promote the social and economic well-being of the people, including public health. After the 18th Amendment, these responsibilities fall squarely on provincial and local governments.

In other words, failure to control rabies and dog-bite risks through effective policy is not just a question of the administration — it is a failure of constitutional duty. And yet, the response remains stuck in a loop of panic and punishment.

The evidence, as India's experience demonstrates, is unequivocal: mass culling does not work. Removing dogs without sterilisation creates a "vacuum effect". New, unvaccinated dogs move into the emptied areas, breeding accelerates, aggression increases, and disease transmission remains unchecked. The streets look quieter for a few weeks, but the public health risk quietly grows.

This failure is visible across Lahore. Stray dog packs cluster around open garbage dumps, drainage lines and vacant plots. These are indicators of unmanaged waste, poor urban planning and institutional neglect. Where food and shelter exist, animals will survive, regardless of how many are killed.

India's Supreme Court recognised this reality. Its scrutiny emerged not because laws were absent, but because municipal authorities relied on short-term optics instead of legally mandated sterilisation and vaccination programmes.

Punjab should heed this warning. Pakistan already has the legal and ethical framework to act differently. Animal cruelty laws discourage inhumane killing. Public health science confirms rabies is controlled through vaccination, not extermination. Religious principles emphasise compassion and responsibility. What is missing is political resolve and inter-departmental coordination.

Sterilisation-and-vaccination programmes require patience. They need sustained funding, trained veterinary teams, mobile clinics, reliable data and cooperation among municipal, health and livestock departments. They do not produce dramatic visuals. Culling does — and that is precisely why it remains tempting.

But temptation has a cost.

Dog-bite victims often struggle to access complete post-exposure treatment. Vaccines are expensive, inconsistently available and unevenly administered. Many patients never complete the required course.

Stray dogs are not Lahore's enemies. A modern city does not choose between human safety and animal welfare. It secures both through evidence-based governance.