Newsroom

Core Messages: problem and solution

Twenty million dogs are killed by brutal means every year. That's 38 every minute. One of the main excuses for this cruelty is rabies control.

The world is ignoring the cruel slaughter of 20 million dogs each year. These dogs die in horrific ways including poisoning, strangulation, electrocution. WSPA wants to stop this.

Fear of rabies is one of the reasons that dogs are killed. It is also the single most unnecessary one. Mass dog vaccination – the humane alternative for rabies control – is proven to work across the world and is backed by the World Health Organization and rabies control experts.

People think killing dogs will stop rabies. It doesn't. Killing dogs in response to rabies is cruel, unnecessary and ineffective: it has never been shown to halt the spread of this disease.

Vaccinating dogs creates a protective barrier that prevents rabies spreading, so the disease dies out. Culling does not create such a defence: roving dog populations rebound rapidly as more food becomes available, and rabies thrives in the absence of vaccination's protective barrier.

Rabies is a global problem with a global solution. A scientifically-proven, humane and sustainable alternative to culling exists: mass dog vaccination. WSPA works to ensure governments understand and implement the humane solution.

In Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Bali, Indonesia, WSPA has successfully worked with authorities to run humane, sustainable, effective dog vaccination campaigns that have halted the spread of rabies.

Death from rabies – both animal and human – is entirely preventable:

• 'No dog need die' – Vaccinating just 70 per cent of dogs stops the spread of rabies, and a sustained vaccination programme can effectively eliminate rabies
• Post exposure treatment for bite victims (although costly and arduous) is highly effective

Just 10 per cent of the money spent on treating people after a dog bite would be enough to eradicate rabies in animals and stop virtually all human cases.¹

Rabies is particularly widespread in Asia and Africa, with large (often roaming) populations of dogs, little or no access to post exposure treatment for victims, and limited resources to commit to animal welfare.

A world without rabies does not mean a world without dogs.