Street dog population in Sri Lanka rises to over 2 million: Animal Welfare Association

The Sri Lanka Animal Welfare Association has warned that the number of street dogs in the country had increased to between two and three million.   

The association said this uncontrolled rise has led to around 250,000 dog bite cases being reported every year.   

Speaking at a media briefing in Kandy yesterday (12), Champa Fernando, Secretary of the Kandy Association for Community Protection through Animal Welfare (KACPAW), said the situation is becoming very serious.   

“We are sitting on a volcano that is about to erupt,” she said. “This year, Rs. 100 million was given in the national budget for dog welfare, which we appreciate. But last year, Rs. 184 million was allocated for dog population control, and only Rs. 27 million was actually used.”   

Fernando said female dogs give birth twice a year, and there is now one dog for every eight people in Sri Lanka. She explained that the only ways to control the population are killing or sterilizing dogs, but killing was banned in 2006, and sterilization programmes began in 2008.  “Sadly, the money set aside for these programmes were not properly used,” she said. “If this continues, the number of stray dogs could soon match the human population. Building dog shelters or crematoriums will not solve this problem.”   

Fernando called on the government to start a national dog registration system and urged the public to support sterilization programmes. She added that over Rs. 600 million would be needed to vaccinate people against rabies.