Half a million dog bites

Institutional indifference often hides behind anecdotes and news pieces that are forgotten soon after they are relayed. But statistics are able to pinpoint the magnanimity of governmental neglect. A figure recently submitted to the Lahore High Court does just that: between January 2024 and March 2026, Punjab has recorded 514,589 cases of dog bite. That is half a million people bitten in a single province over roughly two years.

To contextualise what that number means, think of it in this way. As of the 2023 census, population in the vast majority of Pakistan's urban localities falls below the 500,000 mark. The number of people bitten by dogs is more than the entire population of many of Pakistan's mid-sized cities.

And Punjab is not alone. In Sindh, at least 22 people lost their lives to rabies in 2025, and a total of 300,000 dog bite cases were recorded in 2024. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa reported an increase of over 87,364 dog bite cases in 2025 compared to the previous year. In Balochistan, a 12-year-old boy developed rabies and lost his life last year despite receiving multiple vaccination shots. This is clearly a national emergency that is unfolding across every single province.

As always, the absence of policy is not the problem but the failure to implement it is. Punjab's own Animal Birth Control (ABC) Policy 2021 proposes a framework that offers a scientific population management strategy focused on trapping, neutering, vaccinating and returning stray dogs. But the efficacy of this policy is starkly visible in the rising number of cases every year.

Pakistan requires over two million doses of anti-rabies vaccine annually, but while demand is rising, the supply remains inadequate. Proper funding along with systematic coordination between provinces is still needed. The humane treatment of animals and public safety are not competing priorities.