Baghdad To Kill Stray Dogs

BAGHDAD — Baghdad authorities announced a campaign on Thursday to kill stray dogs who roam the Iraqi capital in packs, after a spate of fatal dog attacks left children in some neighborhoods fearful of going outside.

In August alone, 13 people died of disease after being attacked by dogs, said Inaam Hamid, head of the environment board on the Baghdad provincial council.

Under Saddam Hussein, authorities killed stray dogs in the capital almost every year, but the practice ended with his ouster in 2003. Since then, the number of strays in Baghdad has grown to more than a thousand.

"We have decided to take action after receiving complaints of rising attacks on people by packs of dogs, and reports that some children are refusing to go to school because they're afraid of being bitten," said Hamid.

Three teams made up of a shooter from the Interior Ministry, two military veterans and a police escort will use poisoned meat and rifles to kill the dogs.

The U.S. military has been informed of the plans.

Baghdad's provincial council said in a statement that the operation aims "to eradicate the diseases transmitted from dogs to human beings ... after the spread of the stray dog phenomenon."

Comments

[Beaglelovers]

As if all the innocent children who died in the Iraq misadventure weren't bad enough, now innocent dogs have to pay with their lives as well for the collapse of a society that we helped to engineer. There is a little bit we can doto help, however. The organization Baghdad Pups aims to help bring dogs that have befriended US soldiers serving there back home with them. These dogs were often the only real source of comfort many of our troops had over there, so they really deserve our support. We also hope that they will work with the Baghdad authorities to find a truly humane solution to their problem...one that involves spaying, vaccinating and sheltering, rather than killing. Hasn't there been enough of that over there?

http://www.baghdadpups.com/

[ymuttley]

why don't they use Pentobarbital?At least the dogs will go to sleep ,and not wake up,and IT"S MORE HUMANE

[shengirl]

Poison. Well, that's sure humane.