Experts call for ‘humane’ culling as dog bite, rabies cases rise in Sindh

Experts call for ‘humane’ culling as dog bite, rabies cases rise in Sindh

KARACHI: Expressing serious concern over the surge in stray dog attacks across the province, health experts said the situation could not be allowed to persist and that the government must now opt for humane culling, given the challenges in controlling the dog population through other means over several years. They expressed these views at a briefing organised by the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Karachi chapter, at the PMA House. Sharing data, senior PMA representative Dr Mirza Ali Azhar said there were 285,000 cases of dog bites in 2025 and 83,000 cases were reported in the first quarter of 2026 in Sindh. “We must find some way to come out of this situation. The best advice we can suggest is a policy to catch, isolate, vaccinate, and neuter. But we have seen that the government has failed to put in place such a system and implement it for many years now,” he said, stressing that the serious public health issue needed to be tackled on a war footing. PMA official says 285,000 cases reported in 2025 in province “So far, 21 people including children have died of rabies this year. Their deaths could have been recorded only because they were able to reach a hospital. A large number of dog bite victims with rabies die at home,” he said, regretting that the government could not come up with a comprehensive plan or policy to combat this menace that resulted in loss of so many lives every year. “The people at the helm of affairs are always talking about rabies prevention, rabies vaccination and rabies control without realising that rabies is the consequence of an injury from a potentially rabid animal, especially dogs. If there is no dog bite, there is no rabies,” Dr Azhar said. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Shahid Ibrahim Mamsa said that the present worrisome circumstances demanded urgent measures to protect human lives. “If we think that human life is more precious than stray dogs’ then we will have to make a tough decision of humane culling. Otherwise, dog bite cases and rabies deaths will continue to occur,” he said, suggesting that the huge amount of money being spent on the treatment of rabies should be diverted towards prevention of dog bites. Highlighting examples of other countries, Dr Azhar said that there were only six deaths from rabies in the US in 2025, all patients had the fatal disease from other potential sources (not from a dog bite). In his remarks, Dr Muhammad Ismail Memon said that there should be no doubt in anybody’s mind that the prime responsibility for controlling dog population and dog bite “lies with the provincial government”. “The PMA, as a big stakeholder, can advise, suggest and give guidelines,” he said, adding that the dynamics of dog bite control are a bit different in Pakistan. “Firstly, we do not have proper data on dog population and no concept of vaccinating dogs. Secondly, we have a dearth of money to invest in vaccinating and neutering stray dogs to control their population,” he said. Dr Mamsa said: “The PMA believes that since controlling dog population is the government’s sole responsibility, it should pay a compensation amount of Rs10 million to the victim’s family in case of rabies death and Rs1 to Rs3m to the dog bite victim as per the extent of injuries.” Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2026