SAHARANPUR: Six children were injured when a pack of stray dogs attacked them at Hangawali village in Saharanpur on Friday. The incident was a rerun of a similar event at Padli Grant village on August 7, when a 12-year-old boy succumbed to excessive bleeding due to multiple bite wounds.
In June, dogs picked up a five-month-old infant from her sleeping mother’s cot at night in Behat area’s Dayalpur village and mauled her to death.
Stories are aplenty about stray dog attacks, especially on children. What is worrying is that while the number of cases of dog bites are increasing, government medical facilities do not have sufficient anti-rabies vials that are essential for treating a person suffering from a dog bite.
Ashutosh Sharma, pharmacist handling the dog bite case department under the Saharanpur Civil Hospital, said, "We receive at least 65 dog bite cases a day."
Chief medical officer, Saharanpur, Dr Sanjeev Manglik explained, “The human rabies immunoglobulin which must be used in combination with a rabies vaccine is not available here. Each injection costs about Rs 5,000-6,000 and should be provided by the government to all the hospitals treating dog bites.”
The authorities blamed mushrooming of illegal slaughterhouses in rural belt for the sudden aggression in dogs. An official who did not wish to be named said, "The stray dogs consume leftovers strewn after slaughtering animals. When these dogs are deprived of meat, they attack humans, especially children.”
Saharanpur municipal commissioner Gyanendra Singh said efforts were on to curb the problem of stray dogs
Assistant health officer Dr Kunal Jain blamed animal lovers for preventing the authorities from relocating street dogs, who must be sterilized and vaccinated as per a Supreme Court order.
Holding negligence by officials for the burgeoning problem, animal rights activist Surbhi Tripathi suggested,“ A viable solution for this issue is community fed dogs, regulation of slaughter houses and an effective Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme.”
Jain said the construction of an animal birth control centre is underway where stray dogs would be sterilized and collared.
