Vasudha Mehta is one of the million selfless caregivers in India who work for animals not for any monetary reward or recognition but purely for wellbeing of these sentient beings.
The current situation of Indian community dogs is very disturbing and painful
for them. Especially when they know the culprits for current man-dog conflict are not innocent dogs but corrupt system.
The highest court of India the Supreme Court took a suo moto case on stray dogs in July 2025 which was based on a news report by a renowned national daily that
claimed a six year old girl’s death due to rabies after being bitten by a dog.
Vasudha who has a background in Molecular Biology went to the depth of this case because she did not trust the report. In her investigation she came out with shocking revelations.
She met the family of the girl, spoke to them and got her medical reports. The reports nowhere conformed rabies as cause of death. Neither postmortem nor brain biopsy of the girl were conducted to conform rabies. Yet the news report said the girl died of rabies and that too due to bite by a rabid dog who was roaming in the locality for the last two months. FIR was also filed by the police without thorough investigation.
This clearly shows complete ignorance of police and reporter about canine rabies. A rabid dog cannot go around biting people for two months as it will die within 10 days. This is nothing new in India. Right from most educated to illiterate all believe that dogs that bite are rabid.
This myth about dog bite and rabies has led to fear amongst common man in India and hence, unimaginable dog cruelties. And due to this feeders (caregivers) too are seen with hate and contempt. Daily there are cases of feeder harassment of which majority are women.
And the irony is that people who shoo dogs away, beat them, kill them, relocate them and harass feeders are labelled “CRUEL” and “DOG HATERS”.
Are they really cruel and dog haters? Or are they victim of a system which is pumping misinformation & hate for dogs?
NAPRE 2021 brought by govt of India to make India canine rabies free had two
essential components: Human health component and Animal health Component.
The human health component was to prevent spread of rabies by vaccinating bite victims from suspected rabid animal. The animal health component was to make India canine rabies free by annually vaccinating at least 70% of Indian community dogs for consecutively three years. While the human health component got implemented the animal health component didn’t. Why the animal health component never got implemented is still a mystery?
On 30th June the six year old girl was bitten by a dog. She was taken to a government hospital where she received the first shot of rabies vaccine along with serum. But on her medical prescription there was no mention of the brand / company name of the vaccine, its batch number and its manufacturing and expiry date.
Recently it has come in news that a batch of rabies vaccine Abhayrab was found to be fake and those who received this vaccine need to get themselves vaccinated again. So did the girl receive one such fake vaccine?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSyxwsuEkNa/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
According to Vasudha the ordeal of the unfortunate girl and her family continued for several days. Right from poor wound management to insensitivity of the medical staff. In her last medical report there was mention of ADEM (Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis) an auto immune disease. So did the girl die due to ADEM?
ADEM is a rare, immune-mediated demyelinating disease of the central nervous system which is linked with older, nervous tissue rabies vaccine. The disease happens when the vaccine triggers an auto immune response, where the immune system, intended to fight the virus starts attacking the myelin sheath in the brain and spinal cord.
Recently another girl lost her life after rabies vaccination.
https://share.google/LAie1S2SzCiLzng4H
https://x.com/JahnaviIyer/status/2018350266668695668?s=20
Does this not require thorough investigation?
Another question which really bothers is that why so much publicity for human rabies vaccine?
After rabies post exposure prophylaxis now videos are going viral on social media for rabies Pre exposure prophylaxis to be given to Indian children especially those who have pets & are in close proximity to stray dogs.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSblFGZkYlw/?igsh=MWVqbXdnYTFwd2Q1OQ==
Is PrEP required? Instead of getting children vaccinated wouldn’t it be better to vaccinate dogs and make them rabies free? Which is much cheaper & safer for both dogs & humans.
Has any of the developed nations where dogs are doted & kept as pets in most households made PrEP compulsory for their children?
Well the bitter truth is that both judiciary & people of India have been taken for a ride.
While every other nation in the world is working towards making itself canine rabies free by vaccinating dogs India is completely on a different track.
It is working towards creating hate & fear for dogs in the name of rabies. Hence, pushing sales for human rabies vaccine & cruelties towards dogs.
Another inhuman & unscientific path taken is to label dogs aggressive & hoard them in pounds / shelters.
Does this mean more money flowing to those running such pounds / shelters? Rumours are animal welfare NGOs are already in race for getting govt contracts to run such shelters.
It took Vasudha seven long months to tell the world the truth about this most unfortunate case where a girl died due to faulty system. But instead of rectifying system & removing loopholes preparations are on for strengthening it further by misguiding judiciary.
Vasudha reached out to big media houses but none were ready to publish the truth. At last a new upcoming news channel by the name of Unfiltered Vani gave Vasudha the platform to tell the truth. To watch the entire story kindly go on the link below:
https://youtu.be/0pqz2NALTmM?si=dcBjL7oddiL26ce8
Vasudha has filed an affidavit in the court. Lets hope the honourable judges take this matter seriously and go to its depth. Indian dogs should not be punished for crime they have not committed. In fact they themselves have been victim of corruption & apathy. Giving more power to same system & strengthening the corrupt means defeat of justice & victory of evil