Srinagar, Jan 31: After having broken all previous records  of mauling humans in this summer Capital, the stray dogs are on a biting spree, even worse than before. In the latest Tuesday they attacked over a dozen people in Madin Sahib area of Hawal. One of them, a girl, critically wounded, is battling for life while the administration continues to express inability to act against the deadly dogs.
 A senior official in Srinagar Municipal Corporation said they aren’t being allowed to act against any dogs, not even rabid for that matter adding that the state government was “keenly monitoring that rights of animals aren’t violated under any circumstances.”

THE DEADLY LATEST
 Witnesses said unleashing terror the stray dogs kept biting people who so ever came their way in Hawal area this morning. While many ran for cover, a girl was badly mauled by over a dozen stray dogs, who pounced on her.
 Witnesses said they ate her body parts. The helpless victim could only be rescued when the dogs were chased away by some rescuers.
 Her condition, as per the sources, was so critical that the medicos at SMHS Hospital expressed inability to treat her and she was straight rushed to SK Institute of Medical Sciences Soura. The doctors treating the patient said her chances of her survival were bleak.
 Medicos at Anti Rabies Clinic (ARC), SMHS on the other hand said, at-least seven of the wounded were treated there.
 “We can’t say about the other bite cases but yes seven of them came here for treatment,” confirmed a senior medico.
 Dr Muhammad Yousuf Mir, a Health Educator at the clinic said the badly wounded girl was rushed to the SKIMS for treatment.

THE KILLER YESTERDAY
 The residents of HMT said stray dogs unleashed terror in the area last evening when 10 odd people were bitten there.
 Officials at the ARC confirmed that five of the cases were administered at the clinic.

BREAKING RECORDS
 The dog bites have broken all previous records in the City with almost 80% increase in the deadly cases within a year.
 From 4230 cases reported in 2010, the number swelled to 7257 in 2011. And, the actual figures could be even bigger as this data pertains to cases administered at the SMHS ARC alone. Moreover, officials said, most of the cases were Category-3 Bites, considered deadliest among the canine attacks.

GOVT SILENT, PEOPLE ANNOYED
 While the government has been silent over the issue, Valleys Citizen Council, a City based NGO some days back threatened to kill stray dogs should the administration fail to “eliminate the dogs”.
 They have challenged the “dog lovers to rehabilitate the stray packs at their homes or farmyards but not in the City come what may.”
 Experts, on the other hand, have been questioning the government plans to sterilize the stray dogs saying given the “enormous population dogs, it wouldn’t be logical to carry forward the idea.”
 They say culling was only remedy to the problem, which has assumed alarming proportions with over one lakh dogs reportedly on prowl in Srinagar.
 The coalition government is seemingly so concerned towards the life of stray dogs that it doesn’t allow any action even against the rabid ones.

BOTTOMLINE
 While many in government support the costly investment of dog pound construction, expected to cost around Rs 10,000 crore; a million dollar question posed by Chief Justice FM Ibraheem-Kalif-Ullah, who has been personally hearing a PIL over the dog menace, remains un-answered: Will a dog stop biting after sterilization?

Lastupdate on : Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 IST