New Delhi(CNN) For almost a minute, the 4-year-old boy makes an attempt to valiantly escape the hungry pack of stray canines as they circle round him.

He tries to run, however one of many animals pulls the boy to the bottom. Two extra canines shut in, providing the sufferer little respite.

The boy, who has not been publicly recognized, is dragged by the pack for a number of toes, writhing in ache because the strays pounce. He strives to wrestle from their grip, however his small and fragile physique can’t compete with the aggressors.

His piercing screams alert his father close by — but it surely was too late. The youngster was declared useless upon arrival on the hospital.

The brutal assault, captured by a safety digital camera in Hyderabad in February, a sprawling metropolis within the central Indian state of Telangana, has horrified the nation of 1.3 billion and positioned concentrate on a difficulty that lengthy divided opinion: what to do with India’s huge variety of stray canines?

‘Man-eater’ vs man’s greatest good friend

The challenge is a delicate one in a rustic the place there may be an ingrained cultural respect for animals and an aversion to culling. Most agree stray canines are a difficulty, however there’s a fierce debate over how greatest to reply.

According to the Press Trust of India, there are round 62 million strays within the nation, though consultants say the true quantity could be almost inconceivable to confirm.

Most of those animals — lovably nicknamed ‘Indie’ canines — dwell in concord with people. Often, residents of gated communities come collectively to feed them, some even adopting them as household pets.

But over time, bites and killings by stray canines have put many cities on edge, with politicians, the media, and residents scrambling to current varied options.

Long earlier than the dying of the 4-year-old boy in Hyderabad made headlines, native media have run comparable tales about India’s “killer dogs” — tales which might be then typically picked up by worldwide shops.

“”Man-eater’ dog terror back in Bihar,” wrote The Telegraph India in a narrative final month after a collection of bites within the northern Indian state.

It is against the law to kill stray canines in India. A 2001 regulation states strays ought to as an alternative be picked up, neutered, and vaccinated in opposition to rabies, earlier than being launched.

But in gentle of the ugly assaults, a lot of which have occurred to kids, some have tried to problem the regulation.

In 2016, a marketing campaign to kill stray canines after a collection of bites within the southern state of Kerala gained traction within the native information.

But animal rights activists had been angered, as an alternative urging authorities to supply clemency and discover different options. The hashtag #BoycottKerala started trending on social media, and the plan was later abolished.

While the regulation requires strays to be neutered and vaccinated, consultants say there’s a lack of strict implementation.

“Of course we have a stray dog problem,” Anjali Gopalan, managing trustee on the All Creatures Great and Small, a Delhi-based non-profit that cares for animals, stated.

“Not only do we have a stray dog problem, but we also have a problem with rabies in this country. So, steps have to be taken to deal with both.”

India’s rabies drawback

Rabies is a vaccine-preventable illness which might unfold to people if they’re bitten or scratched by an contaminated animal. It is sort of all the time deadly except a collection of jabs could be administered quickly after somebody is bitten.

Dogs are the supply of the overwhelming majority of human rabies deaths, in response to the World Health Organization (WHO) and contribute as much as 99% of all rabies transmissions to people. India is endemic for rabies, the WHO stated, accounting for 36% of the world’s rabies deaths.

A key solution to cut back rabies inside a stray canine inhabitants is to seize and vaccinate as many animals as attainable.

But veterinarian Sarungbam Devi, founder and trustee of Animal India Trust, stated India must do extra.

“At the time of the sterilization, we vaccinate the dog only once and then they are released. That’s all the vaccination a stray dog gets in his lifetime and that’s not enough,” she stated.

An absence of assets within the nation means it’s tough to push authorities our bodies to extend the inoculation of avenue canines in opposition to the virus, Devi added.

But in relation to canine bites, Devi stated, schooling performs the largest position: “The government hasn’t done anything to increase awareness or educate the masses. We need to educate people, we need to be more vocal and visual about the (anti-bite) programs,” she stated.

“People need to know what to do when a dog bites you, how to you prevent it … I don’t think I have ever seen anything on this anywhere.”

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) recommends avoiding unfamiliar canines and wild animals, not operating when approached by an unknown canine and all the time supervising kids and canines, amongst different issues, to keep away from bites.

According to the federal government, greater than 6.8 million Indians had been bitten by stray canines in 2020 — and improve from 3.9 million in 2012. And consultants say these numbers are probably not the complete image.

CNN has reached out to the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying however has not acquired a response.

“The problem is lack of awareness towards how to live around dogs,” Devi stated, including there must be an “intense anti-rabies drive and sterilization program everywhere in India.”

How to maneuver ahead?

But many Indian cities and states have been profitable in bringing down their feral canine inhabitants and eradicating rabies.

In the monetary capital Mumbai, as many as 95% of town’s stray canines have been sterilized owing to “consistent” implementation of re-vaccination and welfare packages, stated Abodh Aras, CEO of the non-profit Welfare of Stray Dogs.

A strong public well being system for post-bite remedy and common faculty packages about canine chew and rabies prevention has additionally contributed, Aras stated.

“There are other places that have success stories. There is Goa that has eliminated rabies, (the state of) Sikkim that has got its state of operations around, and eliminated rabies,” he added. “It needs a combination of government support, will and infrastructure, and animal welfare NGOs working in that area for this model to be successful.”

But not each metropolis has the assets to implement this mannequin.

Take for instance Noida, a satellite tv for pc metropolis of greater than half 1,000,000 on the outskirts of Delhi that could be a comparatively rich place and residential to many middle-class households.

Devi, from the Animal India Trust, stated Noida stays “very disorganized,” and her group is the one non-profit overlaying all the metropolis — a colossal and tedious job for a small group, she stated.

Gopalan, from All Creatures Great and Small, factors to much more tough operations in rural India, the place electrical energy is missing and sustaining chilly storage for vaccines is a matter.

Following the 4-year-old’s dying in Hyderabad, officers promised swift motion to forestall future tragedies.

“We have been sterilizing dogs and anti-rabies injections are being given to them,” Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Mayor Vijayalaxmi Gadwal, informed native information company, ANI.

“So far in Hyderabad we have identified more than 500,000 dogs and sent more than 400,000 dogs for sterilization. We are following every guideline which is being given to us by the Supreme Court. We’re also going to adopt these dogs so that the number of stray dogs will be reduced.”

That marketing campaign could have an effect regionally. But it many worry it’s probably solely a matter of time earlier than one other pack of canines someplace in India takes a baby’s life.