Love for stray dogs and Rabies

Few days back while waiting for coconut water to be served at a local streetside vendor, we came across a strange sight.

A young lady in her mid twneties,fairly modern in her outlook was feeding stray dogs. She was serving them fresh packets of milk and fresh bread. She was not just feeding the dogs, but playing with them as if they were not street dogs but her pets. The way she was hugging and kissing these dogs was amazing, dogs were very friendly with her almost standing on two hind legs to reach her shoulder.

Typically we had seen last evenings left over being thrown to the stray dogs, but clearly as every dog has its day, and these dogs were having a great day. The coconut seller told us that its not only this lady but a lot of thers who come to this park every morning / some weekly basis to feed the stray dogs. And that these dogs are overfed, and choosy, and fresh bread too will not be finished.

Contrast this with the scene a few hundred meter away- at cross roads, there were a number of 8-10 year olds begging for food.

Maybe this lady was trying to see a long lost pet in those stray dogs and was being too affectionate, but offlate I have seen way too many people feeding dogs, -looks like this trend has caught up big time in Delhi.

Is it because of recent fad among astrologers to say that feeding animals (esp dogs) can change your luck ?
Or because the new age animal rights activists who have more money and resources to spare on the dogs & it is more "in thing". #PETA is trending :-)

 Why should you give two hoots about stray dogs ? well because
 - India has highest number of stray dogs (tens of millions).
- Stray dogs bite millions of people annually in India.
- 20000 people die every year in India from Rabies.(=100 planes carrying 200 passengers each)
- Over 1/3rd of worldwide deaths due to rabies are in India.
- Beyond a certain point Rabies is 100% fatal. There is NO CURE.

The last point is something that most of do not realise.

Btw Rabies infection can occur not only from Dogs, but a wide variety of other mammals- from Cats to Bats. Also these animals can infect you usually 4 to 5 days before they themselves develop symptoms. So becareful when you handle these stray dogs or a pet which has not been innoculated against Rabies.

In India it is illegal to kill homeless animals (Law passed sometime in 90s) , but the law does not prevent us from getting Dogs innoculated against Rabies.