A pile of puppies cower under a parked car. The men grab one, but two escape down the street, forcing them to give chase. Five scrappy adult shorthairs \u2013 of an indiscriminate breed commonly known as an \u2018Indian dog\u2019 \u2013 appear from nowhere. Pointed ears pricked with curiosity, they howl as if sounding an alarm throughout the neighbourhood: the \u2018catchers\u2019 are here.<\/p>\n
The catchers\u2019 van travels the tree-lined, mostly residential streets to the next area. On the way, a couple of dogs seem to recognise the vehicle, either by sight or by smell. They bark and take chase. Each time the team catches a dog in one of its giant butterfly nets, the mutt twists and turns and howls, trying to escape.<\/p>\n
This ritual repeats several times through the day across 50 square kilometres of the south Indian city of Bangalore. The men, a team from the NGO Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA), are on a mission: to catch stray dogs, sterilise them and vaccinate them against rabies.<\/p>\n
They catch ten dogs on this particular day. The dogs are taken to CUPA\u2019s Animal Birth Control centre, where they will be sterilised and have their ears clipped so they can be identified as having undergone the surgery. They will be vaccinated, then returned to their home on the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat people need to understand,\u201d says Vijay Kumar, manager of the CUPA centre, \u201cis that the Animal Birth Control program is as much about human welfare as it is for dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is part of an ongoing \u2013 and some say uphill \u2013 battle to eliminate rabies from India. Around 59,000 people die from rabies every year, according to a 2015 study published in\u00a0PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases<\/em>. The overwhelming majority are in Asia and Africa: India alone accounts for 20,847 deaths, more than one-third of the world\u2019s total, giving it the highest incidence of rabies globally.<\/p>\nReference:<\/h4>\n
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