Rule of Canines

Despite a 2021 policy to control canine population, dog bites continue to rise in Sindh province amid administrative apathy

SUKKUR: The dog-bite epidemic continues across Sindh despite recent measures by the government, and Sukkur district is among the worst affected areas. At least 600 cases of dog bites were treated by hospitals here during 2022. This figure dose not include hundreds more who couldn’t report to a hospital.

Across Sindh province, the figure is much higher. Sindh minister for health, Dr Azra Pechuho, stated during an assembly session on 7 December that more than 200,000 cases of dog bites were reported during the first ten months of 2022.

Since public health facilities have mostly run out vaccine for rabies caused by stray dogs, most dog-bite cases end up in private hospitals having welfare facilities, officials say. This shows that the dog-bite pandemic is far more widespread than the available data suggests.

In 2021 the Sindh government started action to control the spread of stray dogs and to provide treatment to canine-bitten people, but it has largely run aground mainly due to administrative apathy and inaction.

The trigger for the government’s initial response came when the case of a girl child’s death caused by a dog-bite reached the Sukkur bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC). On 18 March 2021, the court ordered the suspension of membership of two members of Sindh Assembly, including a central leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Ms. Faryal Talpur, for failing to control dog-bite incidents in their respective constituencies of Ratodero and Jamshoro.

The court also ordered that if a stray dog bites a citizen, a case will be registered against the concerned municipal officer of the area where the incident happened, and her/his salary will be blocked.

Following these orders, the government sprang into action and  to set up a complaint centre to tackle the issue. The plan of action included the vaccination of stray dogs to neuter them, and to control their population without shooting or poisoning them, which it said was not a suitable option. The government issued helpline numbers for citizens to register dog-bite incidents and other canine-related issues.

But as it always happens, the official enthusiasm subsided soon afterwards, and municipal authorities in the province appear to have gradually forgotten all about the campaign. As a result, swarms of stray dogs can be seen hovering everywhere in the districts of Sukkur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Khairpur, Ghotki, Qamber, Shahdad Kot, Larkana, Dadu, Kashmore and others.

Medical Superintendent of Civil Hospital Sukkur, Aga Naveed Ahmad, told Bol News that the hospital has treated more than 600 people bitten by stray dogs during 2022. He said they were not all from Sukkur district, but were brought in from various surrounding areas including Ghotki, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Khairpur as well as from adjacent districts of Balochistan province.

When contacted, Municipal Commissioner Sukkur, Mohammad Ali Shaikh, inadvertently admitted that his teams were ignoring the provincial government’s 2021 policy of controlling stray dogs’ population by means other than killing them. He said that they were killing six to seven stray dogs every week, but the canine population continued to rise. There is no restriction on the breeding of these dogs in rural areas, and they then pour into urban areas in search of food, he said.

However, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report on canines in Pakistan points at multiple failures on part of the administration to control canine population and the spread of rabies.

Some of the causes listed by WHO include a lack of surveillance system to monitor stray dog population and its spread, limited access to up-to-date rabies vaccines and immunoglobulin, inadequate resources and political support, and weak collaboration between different government departments and sectors including the health authorities, livestock and veterinary science authorities, and the local government.