“Stray dog menace” is the buzzword on social media and certain sections of the media. It was recently reported in the media that the Supreme Court takes suo motu cognisance of “stray dog menace”, although the cognisance order did not use the word. But the final order on 11 Aug 2025 did mention “menace of dog bites”. Regardless, are stray dogs really a menace?
Surely the human-dog conflict is real and bites do happen. But can dogs be termed a menace? Now suppose there is a human-human conflict, say between religion-A and religion-B, what does it mean to call one side a “menace”? If people of religion-B are called a “menace”, it implies that they share most if not all of the blame. We argue that in the human-dog conflict, calling dogs a menace is quite unjustified.
It is worth taking a step back and looking at history. In every historical account, mythology, and folklore we are aware of, dogs are portrayed in a positive light. In one of our greatest mythology, The Mahabharata, a dog is portrayed as “Dharma” itself - allowed entry into heaven, a privilege not accorded even to the other Pandavas. Not only in Indian history and mythology, but we are unaware of any story in any culture painting dogs negatively. In English, dog is known as “man’s best friend”. If dogs were a “menace”, shouldn’t some story somewhere have described them to be so in our long civilizational history?
The fact is, dogs and humans have co-existed in a most friendly manner for millenia, ever since the advent of civilization 11,000 years back, perhaps even before.
This is not to deny that there is a conflict now, but to point out that dogs as a species are not responsible for the conflict, as they did not change - the human society around them has changed. We have urban concrete jungles with 1-2 generations having grown up disconnected from nature - they see food not from a farm, but from supermarkets, and of late, from 10-minute delivery apps. They have grown up thinking sterile cars are part of the environment, but not dogs or cows. They have been taught to cross the road safely, but not how to interact with a dog or a cat - many children are taught to fear domestic animals even if they instinctively feel warmth and friendliness.
So can dogs as a species be really called a “menace”?
In a country where life can be an everyday struggle even for not-well-to-do humans, it is even more so for stray dogs. Stray dogs face hunger, fear and abuse. Rapes, stabbings, dogs flung off high-rise, mass killings, poisoning, hit-and-runs, acid or hot-water attacks are common. Stray dogs killed by speeding vehicles on city roads and highways are an everyday reality. Puppies are often separated from their mother and dumped elsewhere. Dogs and pups are chased away forcefully by many, hit with stones and sticks. Should a kind-hearted soul make the mistake of offering them food or water, demeaning verbal attacks and harassment of such people is all too common on housing society WhatsApp channels.
If a fraction of such abused and starved dogs display aggression, is it right to blame them as a “menace”?
Despite all this, the human-animal conflict does exist and cannot be denied. No child or even grown-up should be bitten or die needlessly. However, at the national level, the conflict described as a “menace” is vastly exaggerated. Let us look at some numbers and compare them with other risks to get some perspective.
Dogs are feared primarily due to the deadly rabies disease. So how prevalent is rabies in India? The counted toll of rabies deaths has been at around 50 per year in India. Statistical estimates put the rabies toll anywhere between about 5,000 per year [link], to about 20,000 per year [link]. Some of these estimates have serious methodological flaws. For instance the first study above does not include a single rabies death among 78,807 surveyed households, yet estimates 5,000 deaths per year. The second study does not include any human rabies deaths confirmed by a medical professional, rather “probable cases” based on a verbal survey of the family members a year or more after the death. Let us leave aside these statistical concerns and assume for the rest of the discussion that the toll is indeed about 20,000 per year. How does this compare with other causes of death?
Road traffic accidents caused a counted (not estimated) toll of 1.72 lakh deaths in 2022. This is more than eight times the outer estimated rabies death toll, and nearly three-thousand times the counted rabies toll. Given this, are cars called a “menace”, or do people fear and hate cars in WhatsApp groups as they do dogs? This comparison points at the sheer irrationality and ludicrousness of the level of fear surrounding dogs. Even the counted human committed murder cases are 28,522 in 2022, as per NCRB data. If a person fears all fellow humans as potential murderers, such a person would need psychological attention. So why label the entire species of dogs as potential killers or a “menace”?
Note, we do not seek to underestimate the seriousness of rabies death or its gruesome nature. But is a murder or a traffic accident death any less gruesome for the victim or the family? Is a malnutrition death any less gruesome? There are nearly 2,000 infants who die of preventable malnutrition related causes every day in India. You read that right - two thousand every single day. Should the Supreme Court not take suo motu cognizance of the corruption and greed which results in poverty and illiteracy leading to so many infant deaths, 78 years after independence?
So, while the problem of human-animal conflict does exist, it is vastly exaggerated in fear and the resultant hatred.
What about the solution? Most complainants on social media who label dogs as a “menace” cannot go beyond complaining and are not even aware of the law of the land. We have a set of rules written down in consonance with our constitution, in the form of the Animal Birth Control rules [link]. The rules seek to minimize conflict in a humane way but should be reviewed to study the vaccine side effects/efficacy or effectiveness of sterilisation programs. The conflict exists since the rules have not been implemented properly, as the 3-judge bench has remarked on 14 Aug 2025.
Fear and hatred of dogs have reached such levels that many openly call for mass killing, copying the west. A panchayat in Kerala recently carried out such a mass killing. While there are many good things we can learn from western developed countries, mass killing is not one of them. Not 100 years back (a blip in history), European imperialists were plundering the rest of the world, using “natives” as bullet fodder for their colonial wars. European settlers in North America killed off most of the native population before becoming what they are today.
Perspective of history and numbers, and respect for our Indian constitution are necessary, while we seek solutions for the real, but comparatively minor and recent problem of dog-human conflict. Irrational fear or hatred, or blind adulation of the west have no place.
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Deepika is a digital marketing and content management professional with keen interest in public health policies. Bhaskaran Raman is a Professor at Dept. of CSE, IIT Bombay. Views are personal
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