Chandran, a resident of Kayippuram in Vaikom, shudders at the thought of the horrifying events that unfolded on a calm and breezy morning at the coastal village in Kottayam last week.
“I heard someone screaming and I found a mad dog pouncing on my brother. He was profusely bleeding from wounds in his chest and hand. As I rushed to rescue him, the animal jumped on me as I tried to detract it using a bath towel, the only thing on which I could lay my hands on,” says Mr. Chandran.
Inflicting a deep bite in his abdomen, the animal ran away in a flash as neighbours rushed to his rescue.
The septuagenarian was among the six people attacked by the rabid dog on September 22, triggering panic among residents of ward 15 of Vaikom municipality. A young man escaped the attack by a whisker as he went to check whether the dog, which was lying on the ground exhausted, was alive.
Later, the agitated residents killed the animal. The post-mortem examination confirmed that the animal was rabid.
Yielding to public pressure, municipal authorities launched a vaccination drive for community dogs in the locality on the suspicion that the rabid dog had bitten a few other canines. Those injured in the attack were provided medical care and administered anti-rabies vaccine. Yet, the panic caused by the incident has not subsided in the local body.
Local bodies across the State have come under pressure from residents following reports of a few rabies deaths and rabid dog attacks in parts of the State. There is a cause for the public to be worried about dog bites as unofficial figures have put rabies deaths in Kerala this year at 14.
There is a steady stream of people to the preventive clinic of the Department of Community Medicine at the Government Medical College Hospital, Ernakulam, seeking treatment for exposure to animals, including dogs and housecats. Between 20 to 30 patients walk into the clinic daily, which was opened on July 1. Around 600 cases of animal bites or scratches caused by pet dogs and cats have been reported at the hospital. Instances related to stray dog bites are fewer, says Minu Mohan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Medicine, who works at the clinic.
Instances of community dog bites and cases of rabies infection, says J. Kishore Kumar, a veterinarian based in Kochi, who had led the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme for dogs in the Kochi Corporation eight years ago, will continue until the State ensures responsible pet-keeping practices and effective waste management measures.
“Rabies is an endemic disease that is likely to exist in the country for a few more decades as there are favourable grounds for its existence. Though we talk about responsible pet management practices, including timely vaccination and registration of animals, no effective system exists for its enforcement. The availability of edible food in the garbage dumped in streets and other places supports the free-roaming community dogs,” says Dr. Kumar.
He also cites the ABC programme, which the Kochi Corporation has been running uninterruptedly for the past eight years, as an initiative worth emulating for keeping the community dog population under check and preventing the spread of rabies. By now, around 8,500 mongrels must have been neutered and vaccinated in Kochi, he says.
However, it is not the case with many other local bodies on whom lies the primary responsibility of the canine population control campaign. Barring a few local bodies in the districts of Kollam, Ernakulam, Palakkad, Wayanad, and Kannur, ABC is not being implemented anywhere else in the State.
Worse, a government initiative to involve Kudumbashree in the campaign got stalled after the Animal Welfare Board of India objected to involving the women collective for the task for want of accreditation.
“The application to obtain accreditation for Kudumbashree has been pending with the board for close to two years now. There has also been a stay from the court in involving the agency in the ABC programme for want of accreditation,” says Sarada Muralidharan, Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary in the Local Self-Government department
T. S. Anish, Associate Professor of Community Medicine, Government Medical College Hospital, Manjeri, says killing of street dogs is no solution for addressing the issue of dog bites. The vacuum created by the death of community dogs in a locality will be filled by new ones from nearby areas soon as long as food is available. The possibility of bites from new dogs, which are unfamiliar with the place and the local people, is higher, he says.
The bites from the younger ones are more likely to cause the disease than from the adults. Data on the places where more cases of dog bites have been reported are required for evolving strategies to address the issue, he suggests.
It has been found that a pack of dogs with more than six members will be aggressive. Such packs, which are led by a leader, tend to attack humans as a group. The number of street dogs present in an area will be proportional to the quantity of food available for them in a locality. The reduction of food is one way to keep the canine population under check, he says.
The Department of Animal Husbandry (DAH), explains R. Venugopal, Deputy Director, has been offering technical assistance to a few local bodies in the five districts mentioned above for the ABC programme. The department uses its facilities in the district veterinary hospitals for the purpose. It will not be possible for the department to directly carry out the job across the State. Yet, technical assistance can be offered for the initiative, he says.
The LSGD, explains Ms. Muralidharan, is working on a strategy with technical input from the DAH and coordination and infra support from local bodies to address the issue. The department will team up with the DAH to evolve a framework for the programme.
Dr. Anish suggests that all pet keepers and those who regularly come into contact with animals go in for pre-exposure prophylactic rabies vaccination as a safety measure. One need not wait for the exposure to animal bites and scratches for vaccination.
