Dear Dr. Rebello, You are very much right about your realistic view on the situation of 'dog menace' in Panaji, with reference to your personal experience while on a visit to a patient. My friend Smita Joshi working on this issue since 1998 has given her opinion, which I am pasting below. May be, we all can find a solution on it with ofcourse the religious partnership of officialdom: Smita Joshi ( Indian Animal Forum, New Delhi) writes: Here is what I think: 1.) The whole idea of ARV is that the stray dogs will not catch rabies, that their titre values will be high, thus saving them after a dog bite. Rabid dogs are not as easy to spot, as is assumed by Indian people. Infact research done by independent bodies which donot promote any vaccination say that human rabies is very rare. If bitten by an animal, rabies is still very rare. If bitten by a rabid animal, rabies transmission to a human is still very rare. So being bitten by a rabid animal is not a death sentence by any means. Human rabies is so rare that most Doctors have never seen the disease. Those who have seen the disease relate that the fear of the disease is more important than the disease itself. Some question whether rabies in humans is a viral disease or a psychosomatic manifestation. And really, it is also upto parents to keep their children supervised. A parent would know if a dog licks their child infront of them right? Then they can definetely tell whether the dog looks healthy or not? Also, what vets will tell you that MOST Indian stray dogs in places where there is an ABC / CNVR program in place, are safer than house pets. The strays are routinely vaccinated every year, but the pets havent received any vaccinations!
Though the comment about Rupert Murdoch is funny, I must mention that post bite anti rabies treatment is proven to be quite effective. Most Indian hospitals carry the vaccine. Incase they dont, that is a problem with the hospital, and not of the dogs or the activists really. You cant blame the dogs for the red tapism in the country. Dogs dont randomly bite. They bark when threatened, or they chase, when angered. But they dont randomly bite people on the road or shopping in fish markets. I dont think you can claim flaccid paralysis to be rabies. Also, do you have recent census of dogs in your state to claim that the ABC / CNVR program is not working? In Delhi we have had great results. So is the case in Uttarakhand Kumaon region, Jaipur, Chennai. There is a problem in dogs being kept as pets. I have been working in the animal control space since 1998 and my experience with various vets has been that the people DONOT bring their pets for routine vaccinations. While stray dogs are forcibly caught and given the vaccinations, such tactic is not possible with pets. I am amazed to read point number 9, if it is indeed from a healthcare practitioner. Anti rabies treatment is done FREE OF COST in all government hospitals in our city, and most cities I know of. It is indeed true that most dog bites happen by domestic pets. So those are the issues that you need to tackle, of enforced pet dog vaccinations, and not target poot street dogs, who spend their time seeking food and shelter, and prefer to stay out of human being's way. Also, another thing would really help is if Indian people grew out of the NEED to keep dogs as status symbol. These people keep dogs, dont know how to handle them, chain them making them ferocious, then leave them free to roam instead of walking them. These dogs have not been sterilized, are well fed mostly, and so mate and produce litters, creating strays. If Indians were stricter about breeders and breeding practises, the numbers of unwanted dogs would greatly reduce. ------------------------------------------------------- *Dr. Anjali Mohan Rao* Chairperson, Indology Goa GIRIVAR, Opp.Dhempe College, Miramar Beach, Post-Caranzalem, City-Panaji, Goa 403002 INDIA Phone/Fax: 0091-832-2462195 Cellphone: 0091-9765974786 Apple iPhone: 0091-9823271968 http://www.facebook.com/dr.anjali.m.rao http://twitter.com/dranjalirao http://in.linkedin.com/pub/dr-anjali-mohan-rao/16/aa2/a09 " Keep three words in your pocket: TRY, TRUE, TRUST; TRY for better future, TRUE with your work, TRUST in yourself, then success is yours. "
