India is home to millions of street dogs. It is almost impossible to get an accurate count, but the World Health Organization has estimated the number at approximately 25 million. That’s a lot of dogs.

Attempting to manage the number and health of so many dogs is a large undertaking. Add various human-dog conflicts and the fact that 36% of rabies deaths happen in India, and the situation only gets more complicated.

Sadly, such complications often lead to cruelty and, more often than not, equate to rash killing campaigns aimed at wiping out large numbers of dogs. One official in the Southern Indian state Kerala sunk even lower by proposing to not only kill street dogs, but to cash in on the situation by selling the dog meat to China and Korea for human consumption.

Recently, the wild animals of India have also been threatened and wrapped up in the debate as rather than killing stray dogs, civic authorities in Bengaluru have been accused of transporting and dumping thousands of dogs into forests and wildlife reserves. The illegal activities were discovered, addressed and will continue to be monitored by the Forest Department.

Thankfully, the Guntur Municipal Corporation in the Southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh has responded by setting up a mass vaccination and sterilization program! This move will protect thousands of dogs from the horrors of a cruel and untimely death, and protect human health too, since it follows the World Health Organization’s recommended approach as the only proven method to manage street dog populations and control the spread of rabies.

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