A four-year-old girl, who was bitten by a stray dog nearly four months prior in Karantaka’s Davangere, died of rabies on Tuesday in a Bengaluru Hospital. The girl, named Khadeera Banu, was being treated at Rajiv Gandhi Hospital in Bengaluru.
The girl was attacked by a stray dog when she had been playing inside a house back in April. The dog had bitten her face, and her other body parts, and left her with critical injuries requiring immediate medical care. Her family had taken her to a local hospital, but later transferred her to Bengaluru for more advanced treatment. After several attempts to help her, she died.
This death brings attention to the growing number of rabies deaths due to dog bites. Earlier this month, Karnataka Lokayukta Justice BS Patil rebuked the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for its inability to deal with the growing epidemic of dog bites in Bengaluru. The Lokayukta referenced evidence from an independent probe led by Dr Vamshikrishna, Superintendent of Police, Urban Division – that included findings which identified the BBMP for its failure to open observation homes for aggressive dogs.
The Supreme Court, last week, ruled that all stray dogs in Delhi NCR and nearby areas should be moved out of residential areas to animal shelters, due to escalating dog bite incidents leading to rabies related deaths. The court had disallowed the operation of the animal shelters as there should be trained persons and qualified professionals to handle the dogs, do sterilisation, do immunisation, not let them out. The court also stated that any organisation that obstructs it will face the “strictest action”.
Unanimous Animal Lovers supported the order and protested on the streets against the order.
A few days later, another bench of the Supreme Court heard the appeals against the previous order and questioned why authorities in some areas had begun to pick up the animals even before the order had become public – which is now reserved.
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