Puppy Videos Are Cute, But Are Dogs Really Our Best Friends?

We need to move over this insular viewpoint of considering dogs just as pets. They have caused some serious harm.

The harm dogs cause to humans and wildlife gets largely ignored.

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

Earlier this year an American tourist from Virginia died of rabies after being bitten by a dog in India in 2017. This incident not only highlights how stray dogs have become a threat to humans but also the inability of our government in counteracting it.

Dogs have evolved with proximity to humans and extensive researches are being carried out to understand this coevolution concerning different pathogens and hormones common among the two. Unattended stray dogs’ are not only a threat to human life but also wildlife all around the world. However, because of their utility and the overwhelming perception as faithful companions to humans, the harm dogs cause to humans and wildlife gets largely ignored.

Dogs’ Role in Extinction of Certain Species

A study carried out in 2017 provides a reliable estimate of the danger caused by domestic dogs to wildlife. They imperil 188 species out of which 30 are critically endangered including 96 mammals (33 families), 78 birds (25 families), 22 reptiles (10 families) and three amphibians (3 families). The study was carried out using a targeted search through the taxonomy and conservation status database from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (November 2016).

Dogs are among the top five invasive animal species in the world. They have played an important role in 11 vertebrate extinctions.

These include Thick-billed ground dove, New Zealand Quail, Cape Verde Giant Skink and Hawaiian rail. Most of these 11 species are flightless bird species. The impact of dogs’ invasion on wildlife worldwide has increased almost nine times compared to the previous study carried out in 2013 and is expected to rise further.

Dogs can impact wildlife via direct predation, disturbances competition, hybridisation and disease transmission. The most acute impact of dogs on wildlife is through direct predation as they increase competition among the wild carnivores, decreasing the availability of prey.

Dogs Are Growing, And So Are Dangers

Recent estimates suggest that the domestic dogs have a population of 1 billion, which is increasing proportionally to the human population. Admittedly, hard data on this topic is difficult to obtain. South-East Asia, Central America and the Caribbean and South America are the regions with the most species (28-30) impacted by domestic dogs.

There have been instances of dogs even preying on livestock and spreading diseases to both humans and wildlife. They act as a vector for bacteria like Pasteurella, Salmonella, Brucella, Yersinia enterocolitica, Campylobacter, Capnocytophaga, Bordetella bronchiseptica, Coxiella burnetii, Leptospira, Staphylococcus intermedius and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

In India, 20,000 people die of rabies infection every year. Bite from a rabid dog is the cause for more than 99% of these infections. Lack of vaccination makes this problem more severe in the country.

Threat To Get Bigger in Future

Increase in human encroachment into wildlife areas has provided easy access to stray dogs around the edges of the national park, wildlife sanctuaries and protected forest area. Urbanisation and road construction offers a gateway for dogs to primary wildlife habitats. This impact is likely to rise as the human population increases and demand for resources from forest rises. Indian government has taken ineffective measures like Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR), and the problems seem to be rising exponentially.

Developed countries, on the contrary, have more significant resources and firm laws to control the pet population. There exists a substantial difference among the developed and developing countries with the latter experiencing a much-pronounced dogs’ impact on wildlife. Dog-Wildlife conflict can impede conservation efforts leading to extinction.

What Needs to Be Done?

Mitigating domestic dogs-wildlife conflicts will require responsible dog ownership focusing on population control. Immunisation of pets should become mandatory across the country. We need a pet registration system, where owners are required to register their pets with local government bodies and should be issued a registration number after providing the immunisation details.

Controlling free-ranging behaviour of domestic dogs will help reduce the conflict. We need to move over this insular viewpoint of considering dogs just as pets. Nevertheless, control actions need to be carried out with sensitivity keeping in mind their association with humans.

(Prakhar Gahlot is a graduate student in biological sciences, University of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. This is a readers blog. The views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)