Editorial: A serious headache has become a problem with dogs
During the year 2025, an average of 915 people were bitten by dogs every day in Punjab.
This is a very alarming statistic: During the year 2025, an average of 915 people in Punjab fell victim to the problem of dog bites every day. This statistic was not fabricated by any NGO but is of the cases reported to the Punjab Health Department. If efforts are made to make the number of cases that were not brought to the attention of this department a part of the records, then the above statistic will become even more alarming. According to media reports, the figure of 915 cases per day was part of the papers presented at the two-day conference of civil surgeons.
This makes it clear that efforts to control the stray dog ​​population in Punjab and make the streets and markets safer have either not been initiated or are not proving to be very effective. According to the details presented at the conference, 1,10,472 cases of dog bites were recorded in the calendar year 2020; 1,26,843 in the year 2021 and 1,65,133 in 2022. During 2023, these cases increased by about 24 percent and reached 2,02,439. The fact that such a number reached 3,34,776 in 2025 confirms the fact that the problem which should have received full attention from the health and other government departments did not get it. Similarly, the fact that 32,875 cases were reported in January 2026 indicates that the number of vicious dogs in Punjab is continuously increasing, not decreasing. Such a trend seems to be in direct defiance of the Supreme Court's instructions.
Rabies is directly linked to dogs, especially stray dogs. The necessary treatment, especially vaccines, to prevent rabies are available in government hospitals and large dispensaries as well as in common man clinics. This treatment is provided free of cost in government hospitals. The aim is the same: to protect the common man from an incurable disease like rabies. However, government doctors often complain that many patients bitten by dogs do not complete their course of treatment. The percentage of those who get the four anti-rabies vaccines has never gone above 70.
This is a worrying trend because not completing the course of treatment can prove to be a reason for inviting rabies. Doctors also say that the currently available anti-rabies vaccines (ARVs) besides being effective do not cause many side-effects in the patient's body. The side-effects that do occur are not unbearable or very harmful to the body. These include symptoms like mild swelling and redness at the injection site, mild pain at the same site, mild fever, etc. Their effect usually lasts for a day or two. Despite such a system being easily effective, the government's efforts to make people aware of the easy availability of such vaccines or the seriousness of diseases like rabies do not seem to be very strong.
The Supreme Court has ordered the state governments and administrators of the Union Territories to remove stray dogs from public places, especially schools, colleges, hospitals, railway stations, etc. and make arrangements to sterilize/neuter them and then release them in certain designated shelters. After two separate judgments of the apex court on this issue last year, a larger bench of three judges had directed the state governments to submit a status report on the implementation of the above orders before this bench within three months. The bench comprised Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice N.V. Anjaria.
During the hearing of the review petitions against this decision last month (January 29), Justice Sandeep Mehta had remarked sarcastically about the large number of petitioners and their lawyers that as many people have come forward to protect the interests of dogs, they have never come forward to protect human rights. Are the rights of dogs more important than those of humans?
The bench's decision on these review petitions is currently reserved, but the apparent stance of the state governments gives the impression that they are still not showing any seriousness towards controlling the number of stray dogs. Dogs are extremely loyal animals. Such animals must be properly cared for. But the increasing number of people, especially children, being affected by them demands that priority be given to the protection of humans instead of dogs.