Bhutan sterilises all stray dogs
Bhutan is the first country in the world to have sterilised and vaccinated its entire stray dog population. A model for ethical animal welfare.
Bhutan has declared itself the first country in the world to have fully sterilised and vaccinated its entire stray dog population following a 14-year population control programme.
Bhutan's Prime Minister Lotay Tshering announced the completion of the national dog population control and rabies project, noting that over 150’000 stray dogs had been successfully sterilised and vaccinated since the programme began.
As part of the project, which was launched in 2009, an additional 32’000 household dogs were fitted with microchips.
Across Asia, there are approximately 300 million stray dogs struggling with hunger, parasite infestations, untreated diseases, injuries from road accidents, and transmissible cancers. These dogs frequently fall victim to direct persecution and inhumane killing.
Without effective sterilisation and vaccination measures, the stray dog population grows, which can lead to an increase in dog bites and the spread of rabies.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 59’000 people die from rabies worldwide each year, and the majority of human rabies cases are attributable to dog bites. Across Asia, governments routinely resort to inhumane methods to control street dogs through culling and mass confinement.
Meanwhile, the UN organisations for Food and Agriculture (FAO), the WHO, and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) have been advancing recommendations for oral rabies vaccination of dogs.
