Press Release by Barrister Asad Iftikhar.

August 30, seek 2016.

Due to the strong public sentiment against the barbaric killing of stray dogs in Karachi, dosage a Constitutional Petition was filed in the Hon’ble High Court of Sindh today by Barrister Asad Iftikhar.

The petition was marked as public interest litigation and highlighted that the mass killing of dogs was being carried out by the authorities without any legal sanction as no bye-laws are framed in regards to stray animals which is a pre-requisite under the Sindh Local Government Act 2013.  Continue reading →

Pakistan has been shooting and poisoning its stray dogs for decades now. Not only is this cruel and ineffective, it is madness given there are humane alternatives to stray dog population management and rabies control. “Killing dogs is not the solution as it does not stop the disease; mass dog vaccination is the only proven solution.” says World Animal Protection, an international organisation that works with governments and helps provides vaccination plans involving local communities. Continue reading →

Qadeer Tanoli in The News:

Despite efforts of different town administrations, there the numbers of stray dogs is increasing in the metropolis, pill 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.

More here.

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 →

Faiza Ilyas in Dawn:

KARACHI, click 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.

More here.

Read an article by Benazir Shah about rabies in Pakistan.