Despite efforts of different town administrations, the numbers of stray dogs is increasing in the metropolis, posing a potential threat of rabies in the city.
The health department of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) provides poisonous capsules to town administrations on demand. It is the responsibility of every town administration to initiate either full fledged campaigns against stray dogs or address any complaints in this respect at any time of the year. Stray dogs can be seen in almost in every town but those areas are their special breeding points where storm water drains are situated. For instance, stray dogs are found in abundance alongside the banks of the Mahmoodabad Nullah and Manzoor Colony Nullah.
A low-cost rabies vaccination drive was held at the Karachi Animal Hospital from 12 to 2pm today under the supervision of Dr. I.H Kathio, the owner of the hospital and a practicing veterinarian in the US. People showed up to get their animals vaccinated and for general checkups. Continue reading →
KARACHI, Dec 25: The government and the media have not yet given due priority to rabies that claims thousands of lives every year in the country.
One major reason of this high mortality is the fact that the government has not developed any strategy to address this serious public health issue.
Official apathy can also be gauged from the fact that 75 per cent of the public sector hospitals are still using the old vaccine which has been found ineffective in many cases and declared obsolete by the World Health Organisation two decades ago.These points were highlighted by Dr Naseem Salahuddin, head of the department of infectious diseases, Indus Hospital, at a public awareness programme held at Aga Khan University auditorium on Friday.
Originally published in the September 2007 issue of Animal People, a leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide, the following article on eradicating canine rabies has been posted here with permission from the newspaper’s editorial team.
“Rabies could be gone in a decade,” BBC News headlined worldwide on September 8, 2007. “Rabies could be wiped out across the world,” the BBC report continued, “if sufficient vaccinations are carried out on domestic dogs, according to experts.” BBC News went on to quote staff of the Royal Dick Veterinary School at Edinburgh University in Scotland, who were among the cofounders of the Alliance for Rabies Control and promoters of the first World Rabies Day, held on September 7, 2007. Continue reading →
KARACHI, Sept 28: The city government kills 72,000 to 75,000 stray dogs a year but does not invest in promoting or facilitating methods to neuter animals, which is a sustainable and humane method of controlling the stray dog population and reducing the threat of rabies. Of the 16 government-run veterinary centres in the city, none currently offer services for the sterilisation of dogs. However, medical experts are of the view that the only effective long-term method of reducing the potentially fatal disease of rabies lies in controlling the dog population through vaccination and sterilisation.
Karachi – Successive city governments in Karachi have over the decades been killing stray dogs by strychnine poisoning and shooting with guns. They have even involved the general public in this from time to time by offering cash as reward for every dog killed. What they fail to comprehend is that no matter how many dogs are killed, the remaining will move into the area and quickly breed up to the carrying capacity of their ecological niche. At a walk to create awareness about rabies near Quaid’s mausoleum on World Rabies Day, September 8, 2007, the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) advocated the Animal Birth Control method as an effective stray dog population management strategy. Continue reading →
The need is to institute a programme for animal birth control and for the vaccination of domestic, community and stray dogs, which is the only proven method of animal rabies control. Under the law, it is mandatory for pet owners to get their animals vaccinated but as is common here there is no enforcement of the law. Ad hoc immunisation of a limited number of dogs, and culling are unsustainable over a period of time and a waste of resources.
More than 10,000 cases of dog bites are being reported in the city and its suburbs every year, indicating severity of the issue. This requires concerted efforts on part of the authorities to tackle it, like other countries of the world which celebrate World Rabies Day on September 8.
