November 11, 2011

Street Dog Welfare in India

Humane Society International/India

The term pariah means "outsider" or "not your own." It is an appropriate word to describe the Indian street dog and his struggle to thrive every single day. Indian dogs are a common sight—across the street, around the corner, on the stairwell, near the garbage dump, wherever people live, dependent on little food tidbits and leftovers. These intelligent animals co-exist with humans in and around urban settlements, too. Often, they are also looked upon as watchdogs, guarding the areas where they live. The relationship between street dogs and the human population in Indian cities is rather symbiotic.

Stray dogs are visible everywhere among the millions of people moving about in the cities, just running here and there, scavenging in the streets, suffering greatly, since every day survived is like a battle won. Most often, they are fed by people in the areas where they roam; however, they rarely enter the houses.

Cohabitation and rabies

The close proximity of street dogs to humans can lead to a higher number of rabies cases. It is then that the pariah is targeted and attacked. Rabies is a huge problem in Indian society, for both urban and rural areas. HSI is hoping to decrease the number of rabies cases through our street dog vaccination/sterilization program.

Our work in India

Since 2001, HSI has supported the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Extension Program of the Jaipur-based organization, Help in Suffering (HIS). This long-standing program had sterilized nearly 70,000 dogs by late 2010. The intent is to spay/neuter and vaccinate (for rabies) street dogs in Jaipur while providing top-quality training for veterinarians. Hundreds of veterinarians from both India and surrounding countries have received first-hand spay/neuter surgical training through the ABC Extension Program, thereby enhancing the capacity of the veterinary community in the region. Additionally, HIS is one of the only organizations in India to successfully maintain records of the number of dogs they have reached since the inception of the program, as well as census studies to determine the impact of their program on the canine population and rabies reduction over time in Jaipur. Dr. Jack Reese and Dr. Sunil Chawla co-authored a veterinary journal article [PDF] outlining their data collection.

In 2006, HSI provided training support for an Indian charity called Animal Help Foundation, which then went on to carry out 45,000 spay/neuter surgeries in 12 months. On the heels of this project, a series of events led to a deadlock and breakdown of sustained spay/neuter operations. In a bid to re-start the initiative, representatives from AWBI (Animal Welfare board of India) and FIAPO (the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations) visited Ahmedabad in 2010 and met with concerned officials to negotiate a plan to bring much-needed help to the free-roaming dogs of the city. As a first step, the team planned a census to ascertain how many dogs there were in the area. We were pleased to help as we have a history with the city.

HSI has also been actively involved in post-disaster rescue missions across India over the years. HSI has sent our disaster response teams from south (Vizag), to west (Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat), to east (Orissa and Bihar), mainly for flood-related interventions. The activities undertaken as a part of the response have ranged from treatments, to shelter reconstruction, to wildlife rescue, to rehabilitation of displaced animals. Scores of cows, water buffaloes, dogs, sheep, goats, birds and reptiles have been helped by our expert teams, who were able to intervene when it mattered most and provide much-needed support in difficult times to animals and sometimes their human owners.

First steps

In August 2010, Ahmedabad began carrying out its first dog census, becoming the third location in India to do a canine headcount under the guidance of census experts. The census in Ahmedabad was expected to take approximately two months and give a clearer idea of the extent of the street dog overpopulation problem. Information gathered will help in planning and determining the number of street dogs needed to reach in Ahmedabad for rabies vaccination and sterilization to substantially reduce their numbers. In addition, the census will be serve as a “model” for other municipalities and organizations to apply in their cities.

Next phase

2011 was a big year for HSI India. Our CNVR, census and veterinary training work expanded into additional cities, such as Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Mumbai, and we opened the much-anticipated HSI Veterinary Training Center in Jaipur to serve veterinary professionals both from India and abroad. The first of our trainees were from Iraq and Bangladesh, with the next series of vets coming to us from Hyderabad, India. HSI has also been focusing on a major dog population census in the city of Mumbai, in partnership with the city government.