The situation

Since conducting our street dog survey it is now estimated that there are 20,500 stray dogs within the Kathmandu Ring Road. The survey was carried out in October 2006 by the KAT Centre in conjunction with the Veterinary Public Health and District Livestock Offices. There are considered to be over 35,000 street dogs in the Kathmandu Valley. They are commonly afflicted with severe skin problems, open sores with maggot infections, grotesque tumours, whelping (birth complications) and infectious ailments.

Puppies have to fend for themselves in a hostile environment, and road accident fatalities are multiple everyday occurrences.

Some dogs also carry rabies and other dangerous diseases which can put the human population, especially children who often play in the streets, at risk. Some 200 people die a terrible death from rabies every year in Nepal.

In an attempt to control the stray dog population, the metropolitan authorities poison more than 10,000 dogs each year with strychnine. This is a horrific form of death, throwing the dogs into violent seizures for up to nine hours before they die.Furthermore, poisoning campaigns can also put people’s pets, and indeed people themselves in grave danger. Poison is scattered around the streets (where children play) in lumps of meat, which are later dispersed to wider areas after being picked up and dropped by birds.

The dog carcases present a further hazard, including the pollution of water sources as they are often dumped in piles and left to decompose on stream beds. After decades of poisoning dogs, it has been shown that this method is ineffective in the long term as the fertile stray population quickly recover their numbers.