Little Omonigho Abraham is currently in hospital, fighting to stay alive. Omonigho, aged four, was badly mauled by a neighbour’s savage dogs on the outskirts of Lagos in late September. Although the boy fled into his flat on sighting the beasts, the two vicious dogs chased him inside. They chewed and mutilated his head and face. They also left his two older brothers with injuries.
Narrating the grim details, the victim’s mother, Helen, said, “When I got there, I met a crowd. They asked me not to go inside, but I refused to listen to them. One of the dogs emerged from the corridor with blood stains in its mouth. I ran inside. The other dog, on sighting me, pounced, but I fought back. I saw parts of my son’s scalp on the floor. The dogs dragged him through the compound for about one-and-a-half hours. This has been a nightmare I want to wake up from.” Pathetic!
While Omonigho is currently undergoing treatment, several other Nigerians have died from needless, but brutal dog attacks. A report in this newspaper last August detailed how James Musa, 13, and Aisha Opakunle, 21, who were neighbours in a Lagos suburb, died a few days apart after being bitten by Jerry, a rabid Alsatian dog owned by their neighbour. Tragically, James had relocated to Lagos when his father died three years earlier after contracting rabies from a dog bite in Abuja, the federal capital.
Fatal dog attacks present themselves in two varieties. None of them is pleasant. One is a bite or scratch from a rabid dog, which, if not treated immediately, eventually degenerates to death. The other is the attacks from savage, unrestrained dogs, the likes of which severely injured Omonigho. The government –particularly local government councils – has to stop foot-dragging over this public health hazard, as almost everybody is in danger of the wild dogs that are prowling the streets of the country.
In the short term, dealing with the ever-present danger demands the revival of the environmental laws on stray animals in our cities and rural areas. It is a common sight to see chickens, goats, sheep, vagrant cows, dogs, snakes (borne by charmers) monkeys and hyenas on our streets. This is ridiculous. Serious societies, after noticing the injuries and deaths caused by such animals, have updated their laws in order to protect their citizens. Nigeria should join them.
Scientists estimate that more than 6 out of every 10 infectious diseases in humans are spread from animals. And since dogs are known to transmit rabies, a zoonotic (present in animals but can be transmitted to humans and vice-versa) viral disease, they should not be allowed to roam our streets again. Even those who keep them for security reasons must be subjected to strict laws, as is the case in several parts of the world. In England, where there are 210,000 annual dog attacks –5,000 of those are on telecoms and postal workers –the authorities have mandated all dog owners to microchip their pets by 2016. All defaulters will be prosecuted after that date and fined £500 (N124,850). In Northern Ireland, owning an unlicensed dog is an offence punishable with a fine of £1,000 (N249,700); while an annual licence costs £12.50 (N3,121.25).
In the United States, where dogs killed 28 people in 2005, different states and local councils enforce strict dog laws, with the Royal Oak community in Michigan imposing a fine of $500 (N77,500) on those who fail to vaccinate their dogs that have reached the age of six months. Although Nigeria used to have laws in respect of animals, the system has broken down. All tiers of government should deal decisively with the threats from these bloodthirsty animals through fresh sanctions before the animals cause further misery to helpless families that don’t even keep them.
Most at risk are children under the age of 15 and those who live in rural areas, where first aid and other forms of treatment are not easily available in case of a dog bite. The World Health Organisation, which targets the elimination of dog rabies in Africa and Asia by 2020 through the vaccination of dogs, estimates that three billion people on these two continents are at risk of dog attacks, while 95 per cent of those who die annually from rabies are Africans and Asians.
For a start, all dogs should be registered by the local councils. They must have tags and be on leash with an adult controlling them when they are being taken for a walk. The tag will make it easy for officials to return lost dogs to their owners. The era of dogs roaming neighbourhoods should be permanently consigned to the dustbin. Incidentally, this was the practice in the old Western Region/State in the 1960s when stray dogs were routinely corralled by veterinary units of the local councils. Vaccination of dogs is critical. According to records from WHO, it vaccinates 15 million people worldwide annually against rabies. But a responsible dog ownership culture is equally vital. Many Nigerians who own dogs are not responsible. They allow their dogs to intimidate members of the public. Dog owners have an important role to play in reducing dog-related fatalities by vaccinating their pets and ensuring that they don’t harass innocent people.
The good news is that rabies is a vaccine-preventable disease. In case of a dog bite, the victim should administer first aid immediately after the attack by washing the injury with water and soap repeatedly for 15 minutes. After this, medical help should be sought by taking the post-rabies exposure vaccine, which is effective against the disease developing into full-blown illness. Lack of early treatment exposes the bite victim to inevitable death in the event of an incubation period of one to three months. Dog owners should take responsibility for controlling their pets by ensuring that they are licensed, vaccinated and are free of rabies.
