Dogs, Waste, and Lives

Human safety and animal welfare can coexist. Kashmir must implement solutions before more lives are lost.

- Hidayat Bukhari

Kashmir can stop this. The solution is straightforward: control waste, manage streets, sterilise and vaccinate strays, and prioritise human safety.

Singapore keeps streets free of stray dogs by removing garbage promptly. Germany and the UK protect animals and people by combining urban planning, strict waste management, and humane animal control.

Kashmir can do the same, but only if action comes before more children die.

I recently saw a boy chained, convulsing, screaming, his body wracked by rabies. His “crime” was a dog bite. He could have survived if the system worked: timely vaccines, functioning shelters, sterilisation drives, and clean streets. Instead, he perished. His death is not isolated.

Dog bites in Jammu and Kashmir have skyrocketed: 22,110 in 2022, 34,664 in 2023, and over 51,000 in 2024, a 130 percent jump in two years.

Between June 2024 and May 2025, over 6,200 people suffered attacks.