India to Sterilize 8 Million Stray Dogs
The Central Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) in India has launched a plan to sterilize over 8 million dogs over the next ten years. The mission: to eradicate rabies from India as quickly as possible. It is estimated that each year over 20,000 people die of rabies in India while at the same time over four billion rupees (close to 80m USD) worth of vaccines against rabies are being imported by the country every year.
The move, which has so far received a good response from society as well as animal welfare organizations is indeed a right step and a better option than the mass-slaughter practice currently used in neighboring China.
