The stray dog that was beaten to death Tuesday after it bit 29 people in a span of two hours on GA Road in Chennai has tested positive for rabies, an official with the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCP) has said.
Speaking to indianexpress.com, Dr J Kamal Hussain, veterinary officer, GCP, said: “We will get the official report soon, but we have already received information that the test result is positive. The dog was infected with rabies.” The dog’s carcass was earlier sent to Madras Veterinary College for post-mortem.
Besides the 29 individuals – including five children – who were bitten on Tuesday night, a few others sustained injuries as they attempted to flee from the dog and fell on the road. The injured were admitted to Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital and those who were attacked by the dog were given initial doses of the anti-rabies vaccine. They are due for the second dose on Friday. The corporation said these individuals are being closely monitored.
According to Dr Hussain, over the last two days the corporation has captured around 31 dogs from the Royapuram area. The animals have been kept under observation and will be vaccinated. The city has five Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres and Dr Hussain said this year alone they had captured around 17,000 dogs for sterilisation and vaccination purposes.
Even though the corporation has been underlining the measures they have taken to deal with the stray dog issue, Arun Prasanna who runs People for Cattle In India (PFCI), an NGO, alleged that the civic body’s measures were not even the bare minimum. He added that incidents like that of Tuesday only cause panic among the public.
“It is unfortunate that so many people were bitten by the dog. The animal was then beaten to death. If a dog bites more than three people, then it means it is rabid. It is the infection that makes the animal go insane. I do not blame the public (for hitting the dog), but it was the corporation’s responsibility,” he said.
“The city has about 3 lakh dogs but they are sterilizing and vaccinating only about 17,000 per year. As an NGO, we conducted a drive and vaccinated at least 1,100 dogs. If we can do it in just four days, why can’t the corporation do this on a large scale with the budget they have? Imagine if this incident had happened near or inside a school. That would have been catastrophic,” Prasanna pointed out, urging the civic body to take stringent measures to address the issue.
