Dogs 'growing threat to health'

By Jan Rocha

The first ever international meeting to discuss the threat to public health presented by the world's growing dog population has been held in Rio de Janeiro.

It was revealed that attacks on people, especially children, are now a greater risk than the transmission of diseases like rabies.

Stray dogs continue to roam the streets around the world

The three-day congress was jointly organised by the World Society for the Protection of Animals and the World Health Organisation's Latin American section, the Pan-American Health Organisation.

Their recommendations for dog owners and public health authorities will be published within the next few days.

This was a meeting devoted to dogs, but there were not any prizes for them.

Rabies is no longer the problem - it has almost been eliminated in the Latin American region.

But attacks by dogs on people are a growing menace.

In Peru, there are at least 80,000 attacks a year, and in Brazil there are hundreds of thousands.

Most of the victims are children.

The problem is that there are more and more dogs in the world.

Now said to stand at 600 million, the dog population is expected to double within 10 years.

Education

Mass sterilisation is one of the solutions.

But the congress came down strongly in favour of education, not for the dogs, but for their owners.

Dog owners must be made responsible for their animals' behaviour and they should pay the price when they attack people.

The small Central American country of Costa Rica was held up as an example.

There, dog owners who fail to make their animals behave can be sent to prison for three years.