Bombay dogs, dancing bears
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1998:
MUMBAI (Bombay)– – Mumbai
civic health committee chair Sardar Tara Singh
announced on August 3 that after four years of
strict no-kill animal control, meaning no dogkilling
whatever, the city will resume killing
diseased dogs and dogs who bite––but only in
response to formal complaints about specific
dogs, and only by lethal injection. Singh stipulated
that Mumbai would not resume the former
practice of electrocuting stays. This
would bring the Mumbai no-kill policy into
conformity with the practice of San Francisco,
the largest no-kill city in the United States.
Singh said resumed killing was necessary
because, “Municipal hospitals have
reported over 60,000 bites in the past year.”
Though few of the bites were serious in themselves,
most free-roaming dogs in India are
unvaccinated, and all bites are therefore considered
potentially fatal if the victims fail to
report for post-exposure anti-rabies treatment.