Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023

• Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023 were just published by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairy. In accordance with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960, these Rules replace the Animal Birth Control (Dog) Rules, 2001.

Highlight of the rule

• The relevant local bodies/municipalities/Municipal Corporations and Panchayats are to carry out the Animal Birth Control Programme for the sterilisation and immunisation of stray dogs.
• A recognised organisation by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) must conduct the Animal Birth Control Programme.
• The ABC and Anti Rabies Programmes must be put into action by Municipal Corporations in tandem.
• It's also important to address the cruelty involved in producing the ABC programme.
• The Rules also offer recommendations for how to resolve disputes between stray dogs and people without moving the pets in question.

Background

• According to data presented in Parliament up until November 2022, India registered an astounding 160 million occurrences of street/stray dog bites between 2019 and 2022.
• Additionally, this has increased disputes among urban dwellers as well as retaliation crimes and atrocities committed against dog feeds, carers, and canines.

Significance

• By addressing difficulties with animal welfare, it will aid in reducing the number of stray dogs.
• Additionally, it handles brand-new issues including conflict resolution and cat population management.

Problem with stray dogs

• There are more than 1.5 billion stray dogs in India.
• More than 300 people have been killed by dogs in the past five years, most of them children from low-income, rural families.
• Even worse, dogs are to blame for almost 20,000 rabies fatalities.

About Rabies:

• A zoonotic, viral disease affecting the central nervous system, rabies is preventable by vaccination.
• Except for Antarctica, it affects every continent, with Asia and Africa accounting for more than 95% of all fatalities.
• Cause: A ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus found in the saliva of a rabid animal (such as a dog, cat, monkey, etc.) is to blame.
• It is always spread once an infected animal bites someone, which causes the virus and saliva to get stuck in the wound.
• Dogs are the primary cause of human rabies mortality, contributing up to 99% of all human rabies transmissions, according to the WHO.
• India has an endemic case of rabies, which causes 36% of all rabies deaths worldwide.
• WHO estimates that between 30 and 60 percent of recorded rabies cases and fatalities in India involve people under the age of 15, as bites that happen to youngsters frequently go unrecognised and unreported.
• Treatment: Rabies can be avoided by immunising dogs and getting medical attention right once if someone may have been exposed before developing symptoms.
• NAPRE, the National Action Plan for the Elimination of Dog-Mediated Rabies by 2030: The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) collaborated with the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairy to create the NAPRE.
• Its strategy for eradicating rabies is based on advice from numerous international organisations, including the WHO and the Global Alliance of Rabies Control (GARC).

Other actions the administration has done

• campaigns to immunise stray dogs against illnesses like rabies. Consider a vaccination campaign in Chennai in 2020.
• collaboration with NGOs, such as the Maharashtra-based Blue Cross Society, to organise vaccination and sterilisation initiatives for stray dogs.
• The Delhi government has launched awareness efforts like "Be a Human, Save a Life" to get people to take in stray animals and aid in population management.

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 (PCA)

• It is the first law that has been passed to defend animal rights and shield them from the suffering that people inflict on them.
• Definition: According to the Act, an animal is any living thing that is not a human or another animal in its many forms.
• Offences & Penalties: The Act stipulates penalties for violators who subject animals to undue suffering and cruelty in order to shield them from lifelong torment and pain.
• The Act also covers the many types of animal cruelty, its exceptions, and the procedure for killing a suffering animal where cruelty has been committed in order to end that animal's suffering.