Recently, a friend of mine, when he came out of his home in downtown locality of Safa Kadal, was bitten by a stray dog. I myself had a very ferocious bite by a stray dog in my Muran village a few years ago. This bite resulted in a highly painful festering wound and cost me dearly in finances as well. Almost half of my one month’s salary went into vaccines. It is strange that these dogs are equally abundant in our villages as well as in our capital city. In my locality, Baghi Ali Mardan Khan, Nowshehra I do not dare to come out of my house after dusk as these dogs rule the roost at that time. Battalions of stray dogs are present all across the city. The major factor which has led to alarming rise in the population of the stray dogs is the abundance of leftover food littering our streets and roads. Even Srinagar Municipality garbage bins, where ever present are usually overflowing with the waste, or are absent at most of the places like in our area where once can see garbage littered across the road opposite DIC office.
One theory making rounds in the old city is that Municipality brings truckloads of these stray dogs from so called VIP zones and leave them in the old city during night hours. If it is true, which I believe is, then the new government should at least initiate a probe in this criminal practice.
In the late 1980s, the teams from the health department used to visit different areas and culled stray dogs by poisoning. There is need for a revival of this practice to save our people, especially elderly and children from the risk of rabies.
Dr Peerzada Ashfaq-ul-Hassan Mir
Baghi Ali Mardan Khan, Srinagar
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