MADISON, Wisconsin- In India alone, it is estimated that there are 30 million stray dogs. Foreign aid typically overlooks the needs of cats and dogs in developing countries, and while providing clean water and daily nutrition is a more immediate demand, the health of a country’s four-legged citizens plays a role in its people’s safety.
Bites from stray dogs account for 99 percent of the planet’s rabies cases, and the strays of the world are associated with transmitting more than 60 other diseases to humans. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are more than 200 million stray dogs in the world and that 15 million people receive treatment after being bitten by a rabid stray each year, while another 55,000 die when they are unable to get medication. Professor and member of the animal welfare group OIE, Hassan Aidaros wrote that “[o]ver 80 countries (almost all developing countries) have endemic canine rabies.”
The limited resources for the large number of stray dogs means that not only are they malnourished, but they have a high rate of spreading disease and parasites so that when one dog gets rabies, all the local dogs get rabies.
Cats and dogs who live on the street and have not been vaccinated are also notorious for being infected with hookworm, and when exposed to the feces of these animals, children are vulnerable to visceral toxocariasis, which leads to crossed eyes or permanent vision damage if untreated.
This same issue once plagued the United States. It was not until the millennium that we really got a hold on the stray dogs in our country, and now the desire for man’s best friend is greater than the supply. The U.S. actually arranges shipments of dogs not only from Puerto Rico, but from South American countries, to meet the demand. However, cats and dogs, while seen as cute playmates in the states, have the earned reputation as dirty scavengers in most of the developing world.
Cats and dogs are tolerated in most impoverished countries not for their companionship but to keep the rats at bay and to work as alarm systems; when one starves or dies of an infection there will always be eight or nine to take its place. Goats, cows and other working animals often eat better than the family since the family depends on the animal’s health to survive, but cats and dogs live short miserable lives full of disease and abuse.
Luckily, the WHO has acknowledged the crisis and works with numerous NGOs to keep the supply of rabies vaccines and treatment medications available to the places where strays are the most rampant. Veterinaries Without Borders work in poor countries neutering and vaccinating cats and dogs and teaching communities how to keep their animal population under control.
Animal shelters have also begun to spring up throughout Asia, Eurasia, parts of the Middle East and Latin American, but the idea of pet owning is still very new to most of these areas. In many developing countries, euthanasia is the most practiced method of preventing stray dogs and cats from overwhelming communities.
– Lydia Caswell
Sources: DGES, NAIA, KidsHealth, CDC, NCBI, OIE, Vetwork, Healthy Pets
Photo: LaPerm