Data on the dangers of stray dogs is not completely reliable
Photo: iStock Very recently, there is a noticeable upsurge in the number of media conversations about ‘dog bites’. Let us understand this better.
Dogs may bite only in extreme circumstances and for two reasons — biological or environmental. When any female gives birth, she naturally becomes protective of her offspring and will become hostile towards the slightest perceived threat.
Dogs are no different. If there is a female dog in heat, unsterilised male dogs compete and get aggressive because of their hormonal condition. These reasons can easily be remedied by neutering/spaying the dogs.
The environmental reasons can be varied. Dogs are likely to get hostile towards people when they have been ill-treated, relocated from their familiar territory, if they have been kept chained for a long time, if they are sick, hungry or thirsty or if they are startled by a person while they are eating or sleeping.
Animals on the streets are inconvenient to many, including the animals themselves. The rhetoric that human lives matter more than animal lives, targets the street dogs alone, often citing the dog bite data from health departments.
How dependable is this data? Every time a person goes to a hospital or clinic, seeking post-exposure rabies vaccine, the hospital records it as a case of dog bite. For each vial of anti-rabies vaccine, a ‘dog bite’ is recorded into the system.
The focus is on the degree of the bite and the treatment, and any detail regarding the dog is irrelevant to it.
But as always, the devil is in the detail. People are given vaccines even when they have no wound and the animal has been vaccinated. It is almost as if the department wants to increase its numbers instead of counselling people that a vaccine is not necessary.
Eighty per cent of the people going for vaccines have been bitten by pet dogs either your own or someone else’s. Our interaction with street dogs is very limited. But we are in close proximity with pet dogs.
Pet dogs may bite or nip unintentionally or may tend to get aggressive if they are chained for long durations, if they have congenital behavioural issues due to in-breeding, if they are ill-treated or not given the requisite exercise and confined to tiny flats and balconies.
When such bites are reported to the hospital/medical institutions for post exposure vaccination, a distinction is not made. All cases are registered as dog bites and attributed to street dogs.
In fact, every subsequent dose of the vaccine to the same person is recorded as a new dog bite. All these numbers eventually get recorded as street dog bites and hence relying on them will never lead to better policies.
Most cities that have good sterilisation and vaccination campaigns now have very rare cases of rabies. But most people opt to get a post-exposure vaccine, even if it is from a vaccinated healthy pet dog.
It is important that the health ministry issues directions to all hospital/medical institutions to record each dog bite under separate heads of a pet dog, street dog or any other animal bite.
Each patient must be given a unique number/card, so that subsequent vaccines are recorded under the same number and not registered as separate bites.
While Animal Birth Control is the only logical and scientific answer to reducing the dog population, it is equally important to reduce the growing intolerance among people for homeless animals. The media has a major responsibility not to sensationalise unfortunate accidents but to spread awareness and compassion.
This article is part of a cover story first published in the 16-30 June, 2023 print edition of Down To Earth
Maneka Gandhi is a Member of Parliament [Lok Sabha] and an environment and animal rights activist
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth
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