In a horrific incident, an 8-year-old boy was mauled to death by stray dogs in Pulwama district.
The appalling incidents are not rare and keep continue to be repeated.
Earlier a young lawyer from North Kashmir lost battle for life in a hospital after having been mauled by the stray dogs. In between, many people were bitten and miraculously survived.
It is a frightening sight to see pack of dogs on the prowl in streets of city and villages across Kashmir Valley.
The canines have been storming streets, chasing cars, pulling down bicycle riders and often attacking pedestrians and children in the Kashmir.
Amid this, there is also extreme polarisation on this issue between the advocates of human rights versus animal rights. The lack of a critical and scientific analysis is glaring.
Despite lockdown amid covid-19 and even tougher clampdown post abrogation of special status in 2019 leading to the reduction of availability of energy rich food, the number of the canines seems to be only growing. It rather debunks calls by some experts who voiced concern against culling and called for reducing availability of the energy rich food to reduce the numbers.
Every year, hundreds of people are bitten by dogs. Around 98% of rabies cases are due to dog bites globally, about 40 percent of the victims being children, according to the World Health Organization, which has announced a campaign to reduce human deaths from dog-transmitted rabies across the globe to zero by 2030.
For rabies, the link is direct. Wherever there are people, there are dogs. If dogs are suffering and dying from rabies, humans will also suffer and die. Dogs also contribute to deaths involving road accidents besides direct attacks.
The dog population has grown rather than reduced in the Kashmir in recent past, notwithstanding some surveys which restricted their domain to a few areas of Srinagar.
Sterilization has also proved ineffective. Based on the estimation of 300 working days, approximately 27000 sterilization were to be carried out in 2019. However, the results never turned out to be at par with the desired objective. In contrast, stray dogs have only grown in number. There is no word about it recently and in all probability it seems the process has been halted. There is a need to get serious on the issue. While animal birth control measures have proven ineffective, there is a need to look for alternatives. Human life is precious and there is need to take a call in this regard.
