In October, the death of Parag Desai, executive director of Wagh Bakri, one of India’s largest tea manufacturing companies, sent social media into a frenzy. Businessman “attacked by street dogs outside his home in Ahmedabad”, in the western part of the country, Indian media reported Scrolling. “While trying to escape, Desai fell and suffered serious head injuries.”

This is not the first time an incident like this has happened. “According to the Association for Prevention and Control of Rabies in India, a non-governmental organization based in Bangalore, there are around 1.74 million cases of dog bites every year in India,” which means more than 1% of India’s 1.4 billion people are bitten every year. If public opinion agrees on the need to control the country’s stray dog ​​population, animal rights activists believe so “The media is trying to do it ‘instigates hatred towards wild animals’” and if media attention to the issue is increasing, this is not necessarily the case for the number of bites.

62 million street dogs

“What makes dog bites especially dangerous is that people who are bitten by rabid dogs are at risk of contracting rabies.” However, this viral disease that attacks the central nervous system is almost always fatal if not treated immediately. Dogs cause 99% of rabies infections in humans, according to the World Health Organization.

“India has the highest number of rabies deaths in the world. Of the approximately 59,000 annual deaths worldwide, 36% occur in India. Additionally, most of these deaths, between 30% and 60%, occur in children under 15 years of age. appropriate Scrolling. There are an estimated 62 million street dogs and 31 million pet dogs in the country.

Next, from “many patients do not take rabies seriously”. From October 2022 to March 2023, Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, recorded nearly 30,000 cases of dog bites. “Most patients who receive the first rabies vaccine do not show up for one or more of the three subsequent shots,” Madhuri Gupta, a nurse at a public hospital in the capital, told Indian media. He attributed this behavior to a lack of public awareness of the deadly nature of rabies.