Rabies Control — Balancing Dog Welfare and Public Health

Rabies kills approximately 59,000 people annually, primarily through dog bites, creating public health justifications for mass dog culls that cause immense animal suffering.

Key Facts

Dogs are responsible for 99% of human rabies deaths globally
Mass dog culls have been repeatedly shown to be ineffective at controlling rabies
Vaccination of 70% of the dog population provides herd immunity
WHO, OIE, and WSPA jointly recommend vaccination over culling as the primary strategy
India alone has an estimated 35 million stray dogs, making vaccination programs challenging

Welfare Considerations

Mass dog culling — poisoning, shooting, or electrocuting stray dogs — causes extreme suffering and is simultaneously ineffective. Surviving dogs repopulate territories quickly, and culled populations may have lower vaccination coverage than before. Dogs subjected to culling die painful, frightened deaths, often slowly from poison. Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return programs humanely sterilize and vaccinate dogs while reducing population growth over time. Mission Rabies and other organizations have demonstrated that vaccination programs can reach elimination targets at scale without culling.

What You Can Do

Support Mission Rabies and similar vaccination programs in rabies-endemic countries
Advocate against dog culling as a rabies control policy with local authorities
Donate to organizations that provide rabies vaccination in endemic regions
Spread awareness that vaccination — not culling — is the only effective rabies strategy
Support stray dog management through TNR rather than lethal control