Hunting Rabid Dogs with Sticks
7th October 2005
The Dumangas Municipality has about 7,500 stray dogs. Some of
these have rabies. The mayor has initiated a rabies prevention
problem to protect the public. Every night, a group of guys pile
into a jeep and hunt dog. The other volunteers and I were invited
along one night.
How to catch a dog
Due to some legal ramblings that I didn't really understand, you are
not allowed to shoot the dogs. Instead, you attach a loop of wire
to the end of a pole. You attempt to lasso the wire around the
dogs neck from a moving car. The wire is tied like a noose so that
when the dog attempts to run, the noose tightens around the dogs
neck. The dog is hung until it loses consciousness. The dog
is placed in a bag and taken to the pound.
If nobody claims the dog after 3 days, it is placed in a gas chamber
where carbon monoxide is fed in via a conveniently parked vehicle.
 The first
dog we caught was pretty straightforward. A clean catch around
the neck and it soon lost consciousness once it was hung. The second
dog was a bit more problematic. The initial lasso caught the
dog around the jaw. Some careful manevuring placed a second lasoo
around the dog's neck. When we had caught the third
dog, a man approached us on a motorbike and claimed that the dog was
his and so we had to let it go. Which was fortunate, because he
was a big bugger and proved difficult to hang.
Of course when I say, "we caught the dog", I really meant
the locals caught the dog and I was an ignorant westerner looking on.
One of the volunteers had a bit of a problem with the cruelty to the
animals, but I didn't. The aim of the project was to save human
lives and if that involves some cruelty to the dogs, then I am all for
it.
Update: I got a lot of abusive emails about this post. Click here
for the full story.
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2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
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