Street Dogs

by Emmy Gostelie · Utrecht, NL

There are approximately 375 million stray dogs worldwide. They spread diseases (e.g., rabies: 55,000 deaths per year) and cause nuisance. Therefore, about 20 million are killed each year in a gruesome manner in an attempt to reduce the number of dogs. However, this is not an effective method to combat the surplus because the dead dogs are immediately replaced by new ones. There are proven methods to reduce the number of stray dogs. The most important is sterilization and castration (along with vaccination against rabies). Additionally, registration is of great importance, developing legislation against cruelty to animals, education, and waste removal. Unfortunately, many poor countries lack the money and knowledge to implement the above methods, which allows the killing of dogs to continue.