Indian Kashmir to sterilise strays, says no to culling
SRINAGAR, India (AFP) — Health authorities in Indian Kashmir on Saturday said they would sterilise thousands of stray dogs in the region's main city after animal rights campaigners opposed their poisoning.
"We've decided to sterilise the animals to check their population," Srinagar's chief health officer Reyaz Ahmed told AFP. In the past, the city has sought to reduce the stray dog population by poisoning the animals.
Local media reports had originally said authorities planned to kill around 100,000 stray dogs in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir, where a deadly Islamic separatist revolt against New Delhi's rule has raged since 1989.
But the chief health officer of the city of one million people told AFP the stray dog population was far lower.
"We haven't done any survey but the number is surely only in the thousands and we get daily requests from residents to check the dog menace," Ahmed said.
"However, rabid dogs will be poisoned," he added, but said the number of such animals was "minute."
Rabies is a major problem in India, with the country accounting for about half of the world's 55,000 rabies deaths reported annually.
Animal rights activists would be consulted on the sterilisation drive, for which the federal environment ministry had pledged financial support, Ahmed said.
Animal rights activists had threatened to challenge the planned cull of stray dogs in court.
"The government needs to create awareness among people about the types of dogs. All dogs are not rabid," said Javaid Shah, vice-president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Srinagar.
Last year, animal rights supporters created uproar when municipal workers in the southern Indian high-tech city of Bangalore culled thousands of street dogs after a child was mauled to death by a pack of neighbourhood strays.
Street dogs are a common sight in India, where packs of animals have a free run of the streets, from suburban residential neighbourhoods and middle-class shopping districts to city centres.
