India’s streets are home to millions of stray dogs—often called Indies. Current estimates suggest there are over 62 million such dogs in India, according to the Press Trust of India. Not
surprisingly, this population poses a major public health concern: serious bite injuries and even fatalities have been occurred, and some of these resulted in widespread news coverage. The World Health Organization estimates that 36% of global human rabies deaths occur in India, almost all from the bite or scratch of a rabid dog. I recall one case of English tourists who returned home after vacationing in India. During her visit she was bitten by a dog and shortly after returning home she tragically died from rabies, a viral disease that attacks the nervous system.
Legal and Judicial Response
This dog bite/public health problem issue has recently drawn the attention of India’s courts. In August 2015, a ruling ordered that all stray dogs in and around New Delhi—estimated at about one million—be rounded up and permanently housed in shelters within eight weeks.
This decision did not sit well with animal welfare groups, and there was immediate pushback. The order was revised shortly thereafter. Instead of permanent confinement, the court ordered that stray dogs be captured, sterilized, vaccinated, and released back to their original locations. The court also promoted designated feeding zones and public food distribution for strays, while excluding rabid or overly aggressive dogs from release. Currently, this law applies to all states in India.
This revised ruling was accepted as being fair by animal-rights groups. However there was realization of its shortcomings. One key reason was India’s lack of infrastructure: there are neither sufficient shelters nor the veterinary capacity or funding to sterilize dogs quickly to control their reproduction. Today, the law across India emphasizes sterilization and vaccination rather than mass confinement.
Indian law, very generally like American dog bite law, has both strict liability and negligence aspects to it. For example, India dog bite law (which assumedly applies to all of India) states that an owner who negligently fails to control a dog, thereby endangering human life, can face up to six months’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.
Public Health and Social Impact
In India, as the world’s most populous country, understandably there is a high frequency of people being attacked and bitten by dogs. And, like the kind of dog bite injuries sustained by victims in the United States, many dog bite victims in India likely suffer from severe disfigurement, disability, or hospitalization. However I know of no peer-reviewed publication which expounds upon the epidemiological data on bite frequency, dog types, and circumstances, etc.
Behavioral Considerations
From my perspective in animal behavior, hunger probably motivates most stray dogs to bite. In fact, for many mammalian species, food deprivation increases the likelihood of predatory aggression, and dogs are probably no exception. In India, a common fact pattern is likely the following: a stray approaches a person seeking food, and the person responds by shooing the dog away. Such interactions frequently escalate into provoked bites.
