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Bhutan declares its entire street dog population fully sterilized and vaccinated

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71–80 of 175 posts

Re: Bhutan declares its entire street dog population fully sterilized and vaccinated

#71
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While traveling SE Asia I didn't see that very often. Besides in some rural areas (and even there), dogs turned into pets as in western "civilization" and their owners didn't want to eat them anymore.

When I was in Hanoi in 2010, in the central districts as unrural as you can get in Vietnam, skinned dog carcasses were hanging at a number of markets. If westernization has had an impact, it must be more recent than that. I’m curious to go back and see for myself.

My understanding is that young people are starting to turn against dog meat consumption, but it's still very common in the north.

Re: Bhutan declares its entire street dog population fully sterilized and vaccinated

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to “only” 500 millions pigs, the number of dogs is astounding. No wonder many countries also use them as food.

Dogs as food?

People will eat anything when necessary. This is a famous restaurant menu from the 1870 siege of Paris: https://www.messynessychic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Me...

It contains entries such as Consommé d'Eléphant, Le Civet de Kangourou, and Le Chat flanquè de Rats

Re: Bhutan declares its entire street dog population fully sterilized and vaccinated

#73
post #39

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Easier to get people to agree to sterilisation than a cull, I suspect, but sterilisation also has one other effect: It reduces the rate of reproduction of unsterilised animals in same population, who will be less and less likely to stumble upon an unsterilised mate.

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Re: Bhutan declares its entire street dog population fully sterilized and vaccinated

#74
post #38

100% is a big achievement in street dog unavailability - much harder than, say, 99.999%. In k-nines (un)availability, the cost usually increases by 10 * k to increment k by 1. It's tempting to imagine that they didn't actually get to 100%, and there are some hidden holdouts who have escaped the program and will re-establish the street dog population covertly.

Yeah I'm not sure how they would even know if it's 100% vs 99.999%

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Re: Bhutan declares its entire street dog population fully sterilized and vaccinated

#75
post #5

> There are approximately 300 million street dogs across Asia Didn’t expect that number honestly.

Asia has 4.5 billion humans. So that works out around 15 persons per dog. Seems quite spot-on given that these dogs will eat on leftovers and whatever humans throw to them. I wonder if they derived the number that way (highly doubt they are id-ing all these dogs).

But surprising nonetheless! I just thought of 15 times my city population and it is astounding.

Re: Bhutan declares its entire street dog population fully sterilized and vaccinated

#76
post #61

I wish Turkey would do this too. Street dogs gather in packs and periodically attack people: not just small children, they go after grown men and women who are just walking down the street during daylight hours. This is true in major cities, like Ankara. When I’m there I avoid walking around after sunset or in areas without people, primarily because I don’t want to be stuck in the open with 3 or 4 hungry street dogs…

I remember being chased by a pack of at least twenty angry wild dogs. This was in India, not a fun experience.

Similar experience. One of them even tried to go for my leg. Had a very very bright flashlight which I used to blind them. After that I walked with a sharp ended walking pole and would not hesitate to stab them with it. It was a very hairy situation. Did not encounter the pack again since I stopped moving around the town at dark.

Re: Bhutan declares its entire street dog population fully sterilized and vaccinated

#77
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should try actually reading the linked article, what they've done is good both for us and for the dogs. Unless you like dogs who are malnourished, unfed and have rabies.

Of course, dead dogs and no dogs at all are better than alive dogs, which is to say that I stand by my point. And no need to read the article as I've grown among stray dogs until relatively recently (as I'm from Eastern Europe), not the best thing ever but certainly preferable to having only us, humans, around.

By name I'd say you're romanian. Certainly you must know of the 2 kids that died there to stray dogs in the recent years right? One of them died in a parc.

Also, why are you inserting yourself in a discussion about an article without reading the article?

Re: Bhutan declares its entire street dog population fully sterilized and vaccinated

#78
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should try actually reading the linked article, what they've done is good both for us and for the dogs. Unless you like dogs who are malnourished, unfed and have rabies.

Of course, dead dogs and no dogs at all are better than alive dogs, which is to say that I stand by my point. And no need to read the article as I've grown among stray dogs until relatively recently (as I'm from Eastern Europe), not the best thing ever but certainly preferable to having only us, humans, around.

The few times I've been to some Eastern European countries, the street dogs were indeed not an issue. Just unsightly. They are actually useful as they get rid of carcasses of other dead animals (pigeons, rats, etc.) on the streets.

However, there are countries where the street dog population is way higher and attacks and rabies are a real problem. When these countries take action, they often mass-cull the dogs. In Bhutan's case, the dogs aren't going anywhere. The 100% number is simply not believable and soon there will be again a small, but manageable population.

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