A five-month-old baby was mauled to death by a dog at Tandur in Telangana’s Vikarabad district today. The boy, Babusai, was sleeping at his home, unattended, when the dog entered and attacked him. The baby’s father Dattu, it is learnt, killed the dog after finding his son dead. Local media reports say the boy’s parents had stepped out for work.
While some local residents have said the dog was a pet at Dattu’s workplace, the owner of the unit has denied this and said it was a stray.
The chilling incident has put the spotlight on a rise in incidents of dog bites and dog attacks in the country. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported last December that incidents of dog bites have seen a 26.5 per cent year-on-year increase from 2022 to 2023.
At least two children were killed in stray dog attacks last month. On April 14, a two-and-a-half-year-old girl was mauled to death by stray dogs while she was playing near an under construction apartment building at Hyderabad. In another tragic incident, a four-year-old girl died after stray dogs attacked her in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria on April 13.
The conversation on dog bite cases also involves pet dogs. Viral videos showing pet dogs attacking children in closed spaces such as elevators have forced authorities to take note. Several civic bodies have issued guidelines for pet owners, such as asking them to keep dogs on lease in public areas.
Earlier this month, a five-year-old girl suffered serious injuries when two Rottweiler dogs attacked her at a park in Chennai. The dogs are pets and were not on leash. Police registered a case of negligence against their owner.
In the wake of the incident, the Greater Chennai Corporation tightened rules for entry of pets, particularly dogs, inside public parks. The revised rules make it mandatory for pets to be leashed and muzzled inside parks.
The dog attacks have sparked a conversation on whether dogs from certain breeds should be kept as pets in residential neighbourhoods.
In March, the Centre asked states to ban the sale and breeding of 23 breeds of ferocious dogs, including Pitbull Terrier, American Bulldog, Rottweiler and Mastiffs. The directive added that those who already have these breeds as pets must sterilise them at once.
