Incidents of dog bites is not uncommon in India especially when the stray dog population is so huge and the people's attitude towards dogs is so full of hatred and fear.
A normal and healthy Stray dog may bite due to any of the following reasons:
1 When dogs feel threatened. This is the most common reason for dogs biting. Hence, people should avoid beating them, kicking them or being cruel to them.
2 When a mother is guarding her new born pups. A mother may attack if she finds any stranger coming near her babies. She does this to protect her babies.
3 A dog may bite a complete stranger in order to guard his territory. The percentage of such stray dogs is less compared to the other two types mentioned above.
4 Dogs may chase and bite a running person. Dogs have a natural instinct to chase a running man, motorist or a cyclist. So the best thing to do is to stop running and stand still when a dog chases.
5 Dogs may bite out of irritation. May be they are not well (tooth ache), may be hungry, thirsty.........This again has a very low percentage.
Such bites do not lead to rabies, because the dog is not rabid. All one needs to do is to wash the wound with soap and water and then apply an antiseptic cream.
If the wound is deep then a tetanus injection is all that one needs to get.
Here where the caregiver might be very helpful. If the dog can be identified and has a caregiver then the person bitten by the dog can ask for the history of the dog from the caregiver. The caregiver is the best person to confirm if the dog is rabid or not and he can also check the dog for next 10 days because a rabid dog is likely to die within 7 to 10 days time.
But what exactly happenes in India?
When a healthy dog bites due to any of the reasons mentioned above the people do the following:
1 rush to the hospital in panic and get rabies vaccination done
2 If the dog is known then they either shoo the dog away from the colony or relocate him or beat him to death or poison him.
3 if the dog has caregivers then they assault and abuse them for feeding the dog. Ask them not to feed the dog in future. They also threaten them with police action. And sometimes make a false and baseless case against the caregivers. We have seen that happen in Ghaziabad recently.
What needs to be done?
The Delhi Govt has introduced many new things in schools such as the happiness class. It is also important that the students learn how to befriend dogs and not to be bitten by them.
Workshops regarding dog behaviour and rabies should be held in both schools and colleges.
Both schools and colleges should encourage their teachers and students to undergo such workshops
In fact one member from every RWA should be made to undergo a workshop on dog behaviour and rabies.
The municipal corporations should collaborate with NGOs like PFA, PETA, Friendicoes,PAWS etc to bring public awareness.
There are international organizations which are working to bust myths related with rabies. One such organizations is GARC.
GARC (Global Alliance for Rabies Control) is working with WHO in its mission to make the world canine rabies free by 2030.
They have an online rabies educator certificate which can be done by any person.
It is a free of cost online course which can be done in just few hours time. The colleges and schools should encourage their teachers and students to do this course.
Such courses will definitely help in busting the myths attached with dogs and canine rabies.
https://rabiesalliance.org/capacity-building/gep
Along with all this it is very important that the AWBI comes out with guidelines for stray dog management in schools and colleges.
It is already very late and further delay will only create more dog- man and man-man conflict in educational institutions.