Gujarat businessman Parag Desai’s death in Ahmedabad recently has reignited the debate on the stray dog menace in India. Mr Desai fell while being chased by street dogs during his morning walk. He suffered head injuries and died of a brain haemorrhage days later. Almost every week, dog attack deaths are reported from different parts of the country, each more gruesome than the previous.

The statistics of such deaths are horrific and speak for themselves. India reported nearly 16 million cases of stray dog bites between 2019 and 2022 (parliament data till November 2022), an average of over 10,000 cases daily. The National Rabies Control Programme reported 6,644 clinically suspected cases and deaths of human rabies between 2012 and 2022 in India. Between January and October 2022, Kerala and Punjab reported over 10,000 cases each, while 1,000-10,000 cases were reported from Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Kashmir. About 200 dog bites were reported every day from Ahmedabad in 2019.

These figures speak poorly of India as it strives to be a developed nation. When developed countries have been able to control the stray menace, what stops us?

In India, it is illegal to remove stray dogs from the streets and they cannot be driven away either. Stray dogs continue to remain on the roads until they are adopted, which is rare. This creates a perfect environment for the problem to grow and flourish. The Animal Birth Control Program 2001, introduced by the government with the aim of controlling stray dogs through sterilisation and vaccination, has failed because of poor implementation. Local municipal corporations and NGOs tasked with carrying out sterilisations cite lack of funds and resources, corruption, and lack of coordination between government agencies.

“It is the duty of municipalities under the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, to run an effective dog sterilisation programme. Sterilisations are simple surgeries that prevent births. Getting dogs sterilised has been a requirement for 22 years, previously mandated under the Animal Birth Control (Dog) Rules, 2001, which has now been replaced by Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023. If all municipalities had taken this lawful duty seriously, there would hardly be any dogs on the road today,” says Meet Ashar, Cruelty Case Division Legal Advisor and Manager, PETA India.

India has a love-hate relationship with stray dogs. On the one hand, countless people feed strays as an act of kindness, and on the other, there is a rising number of human lives lost to stray dog bites. Disposal of waste in the open attracts stray dogs at times, leaving them hungry – or only partly sated – and aggressive. The absence of waste management to address open litter on roads is another contributor.

The pandemic appears to have impacted the stray population too, turning them more feral than before. Animal experts say that post-pandemic, stray dogs are seen to have become more aggressive due to food shortages, the abandonment of pets, and a decrease in human-dog interactions. Dogs being fed in the same area makes them insecure about their space and intensely territorial. It becomes the duty of the dog feeder to ensure that the stray is vaccinated.

The horrifying videos of dog bite incidents that go viral on social media include calls for strong action to curb the menace. Reports have often surfaced of the face-off between animal lovers and those opposing their activities in public spaces.

A tweet by senior IPS officer Arun Bothra after the Parag Desai incident drew support as well as outrage. “Carry a stick to keep safe from stray dogs on morning walks. If there are dog lover activists in your area, carry a bigger stick,” he wrote.

Facing a backlash, he said, “I’m not in any way advocating violence, my only concern is no one should fall prey to dog bites. When one goes out for a walk, one is compelled to carry the stick for self-defence. Nobody goes out for a walk with the intention of hurting the dog. Dog lover-activists must understand and acknowledge that stray dogs are a problem”.

India accounts for 36 per cent of the world’s rabies deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “Most children and elderly people bitten by strays are from the lower income group – they cannot afford expensive rabies vaccines and eventually die. Isn’t that sad? So many people have liked the tweet, it shows they too are facing the stray menace,” Mr Bothra remarked.

Recently, the Supreme Court talked about a durable and humane solution to human-stray dog conflicts in the context of Kerala. In response to the Kerala government’s proposal to cull “aggressive and rabid” dogs, animal activists argued that addressing the root causes of the problem is crucial.

“Sterilisation and supporting dog feeders who turn dogs trusting and friendly are the only humane, legal and effective options to stem India’s stray animal crisis,” explained Mr Ashar.

According to one estimate, he said, one unaltered dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in six years. “A robust and effective sterilisation programme can help prevent this as stray dogs are surgically neutered and then released back in the same area from which they were picked up, as dogs are territorial in nature. Sterilised dogs are also vaccinated against rabies,” he said.

However, insiders demur. “Stray dogs are released on the roads without vaccination. Their ears are pierced (a permanent identification mark showing that a stray has been sterilised) without the process being actually carried out,” an official said.

As in many other areas of public service, in animal control too, the problem is not the lack of policies but the inefficient execution of sterilisation programmes that have resulted in the failure to control the stray dog boom in our country. With each fatal dog bite, there is an uproar but those responsible for managing the menace always fail to take ownership.

(Bharti Mishra Nath is a senior journalist).

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.

Palestinian bride Suwar Safi was looking forward to wearing her white dress and sharing her life with Ahmed after their wedding, but instead she is living in a refugee camp after Israel launched air strikes on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

“Everyone was telling me, it’s ok and to have faith, this is our destiny and we have to accept it,” she said, adding: “We did not get the chance to experience that joy.”

Safi, 30, and her family from the northern Gaza Strip are now displaced and living in a tent at a United Nations site in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Ahmed Safi, from Khan Younis, still lives with his family and the couple rarely see each other because of the conflict.

They were due to have married on Oct. 19.

Israel launched the air strikes after Hamas militants attacked Israeli towns on Oct. 7 in a rampage that killed 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and hostages were taken back into Gaza.

When the conflict erupted, Ahmed said he tried to call his fiancee and her family to try to move them from the north to the south. Israel had urged Palestinians in Gaza City to move south, because it was safer, but air strikes have hit across the enclave.

“Even when we finally managed to get a car to get them here, air strikes happened while they were fleeing,” he said.

“As a 30-year-old man I was impatiently waiting for this wedding and for this day. The 19th of October transformed from a joyful day to a catastrophe full of sadness, destruction and death,” he said.

Weddings are usually a bright spot in impoverished Gaza, one of the most densely-populated places in the world with 2.3 million people and where many people are jobless and cannot afford to marry.

In a statement on Wednesday, the health ministry in Gaza said at least 6,546 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli bombardment since Oct. 7, including 2,704 children.

As per media reports, both South Korean restaurants and consumers have rapidly developed a strong aversion to Tsingtao beer. This change in sentiment is linked to a viral video that has surfaced, suggesting that an employee at one of the company’s facilities in China was shown urinating into a tank.

The video, which has accumulated millions of views on social media since it was first posted last Thursday, depicts an individual in a helmet and blue uniform climbing over the side of a high-walled container and appearing to urinate into its contents.

Tsingtao, the second-largest brewery in China and a significant exporter, has responded by alerting the authorities upon discovering the video. In a statement, the brewery emphasized, “Our company attaches high importance to the relevant video that emerged from Tsingtao Brewery No. 3 on 19 October.”

It added, “At present, the batch of malt in question has been completely sealed. The company continues to strengthen its management procedures and ensure product quality.”

Authorities in Pingdu, situated in Shandong province where the factory is situated, have initiated an inquiry into the incident. According to Chinese media, a source from Tsingtao revealed that neither the worker involved nor the person who recorded the video were employed directly by the brewery, The Guardian reported.

However, the business repercussions seem to be escalating.

The South Korean newspaper, JoongAng Daily, has disclosed that several restaurants, primarily those serving Chinese cuisine, have sought refunds for their Tsingtao shipments. Nevertheless, the South Korean importer of the beer reportedly denied these requests, The Guardian reported. 

“I asked if we could get a refund for the Tsingtao beer we already bought, but [the importer’s representative] said that’s not possible,” the newspaper quoted an employee at a Chinese restaurant in Seoul as saying.

According to the newspaper, the employee said diners requested beers other than Tsingtao. 

After the video went viral on social media, several users reacted with anger and voiced support for the Chinese beer maker. A user wrote, “A piss that will ruin a lot of money, this worker has done some real damage here.”

“Good thing I don’t drink beer – but it’s unimaginable if this brand is finished because of this,” said another. “Is this the first time though?” 

The BBC reported that the incident also led to Tsingtao’s share price fall on Monday. The company’s shares fell sharply when the Shanghai Stock Exchange opened on Monday morning but were trading broadly flat by the afternoon, the outlet reported.