Compassion and data can fix our stray animal crisis

Ten dogs and a cat were found dead in Mohammadpur after eating poisoned food reported from Japan Garden City in late 2024. Weeks later, suspected poisonings surfaced in Banani Old DOHS. These are older headlines and, to be fair, some steps followed: ward-level vaccination pilots, scattered sterilisation drives, and city announcements in places like Khulna to vaccinate thousands of dogs. 

Yet the larger pattern persists: outrage, denial, then silence until the next incident. Ad hoc "removals" or cullings still get framed as hygiene efforts. They are neither lawful nor effective. Stray animals, dogs, cats, and urban wildlife are part of a city's living system. 

When we cull, unvaccinated animals fill the vacuum; when we look away, bites and diseases persist; when we treat compassion as clutter, governance corrodes. Bangladesh needs a pragmatic, scaled urban animal policy that treats strays as a matter of public health, not public relations.

The playbook remains reactive: residents complain; someone relocates or poisons the animals. Core drivers — poor waste management; weak coordination among city corporations, the Livestock Department, DGHS, and NGOs; limited veterinary capacity; and minimal enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act 2019 — go untouched.

And public health suffers: Bangladesh records 200,000+ dog-bite cases annually, and in 2025, Dhaka investigated a confirmed human rabies death via a One-Health lens. Data gaps, including the lack of a census, unified vaccination logs, and a bite dashboard, sustain the cycle. Humane management is operations design, not sentimentality.

Locally delivered national TNVR

We need to adopt Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TNVR) as the national standard and deliver it ward by ward. Evidence across South and Southeast Asia is consistent: when ≥70% of dogs in an area are vaccinated (and females sterilised), populations stabilise and human cases of rabies fall sharply. 

Dhaka North and Dhaka South should run rolling ward campaigns with fixed and mobile teams, coordinated with DGHS, so dog vaccination data align with human post-exposure prophylaxis records. 

Prioritise markets, transport hubs, and high-bite wards first; repeat rounds on a fixed calendar so coverage does not decay. The fund should be provided through a One-Health line item in the national health budget, with performance-based disbursements to municipalities. Publish monthly coverage maps. The metric that matters: vaccination and sterilisation coverage by ward, not sporadic "drives."

Shelters and mobile clinics

Each city needs at least one government-NGO shelter for treatment, recovery, and adoption, plus mobile veterinary vans for emergency response and mass vaccination. This is not a warehouse for indefinite confinement; it is a clinical bridge for the injured, sick, or vulnerable (including cats) and a base for sterilisation programs. 

Leverage CSR from telecoms, pet-care, and pharma, and integrate veterinary colleges for training. Publish intake, treatment, and adoption dashboards; set maximum stays; track outcomes. The visible presence of humane infrastructure reduces fear, channels citizen energy into volunteering and adoption, and keeps streets cleaner and safer.

Enforce the Animal Welfare Act 2019

Pass city by-laws mirroring the national Act. Explicit bans on poisoning and illegal relocation; clear penalties; and due-process protocols for complaints. Launch a hotline and a simple mobile app for reporting cruelty with geotagged evidence, linked to city enforcement and local police. 

Train ward officials on lawful handling, evidence collection, and referral pathways to shelters or TNVR teams. Publicly post sanctions to create deterrence. Law that is seen to work changes behaviour: residents learn that cruelty is not an option, associations stop contracting illegal "removals," and city teams gain legitimacy to do science-based work.

Data and governance

Build an Urban Animal Dashboard that maps hotspots, bite incidents, vaccination and sterilisation coverage, shelter capacity, and volunteer networks. Give DGHS, city corporations, Livestock offices, and partner NGOs a shared workspace with simple KPIs: coverage ≥70%; bites declining quarter-on-quarter; 48-hour response to cruelty reports; and zero unlawful culls. 

Publish ward scorecards monthly. Data discipline converts compassion into operations: routes get optimised, vaccine stock-outs are avoided, and public trust grows because progress is visible.

Public awareness and waste reform

Run citywide PSAs in schools, mosques, clinics, and on TV on bite prevention, safe feeding, and reporting cruelty. Recognise community feeders with ID tags linked to TNVR records so dogs or cats in a locality are known, vaccinated, and less fearful. 

Pair this with sealed waste bins and fixed collection times to eliminate the readily available food that sustains uncontrolled growth. Humane policy is not at odds with sanitation; it is how sanitation succeeds without violence.

What other countries learned

Sri Lanka cut rabies dramatically with repeated mass dog-vaccination rounds; the lesson is that sustained coverage matters. Bali (Indonesia) crushed outbreaks through island-wide rounds, with cases rebounding when campaigns lapsed, proving that multi-year budgeting is essential. 

Bhutan coordinated a nationwide TNVR with NGO partners, demonstrating that small countries can achieve full coverage when programs are treated as infrastructure, not charity. 

India's updated Animal Birth Control Rules mandate that cities sterilise or vaccinate animals at designated feeding points, where funding and centres have remained consistent, leading to a decrease in conflict.

Bangladesh should copy what works: TNVR, vaccination, by-laws, and data and avoid theatrical crackdowns.

A humane urban animal policy will save lives, reduce bites, lower rabies costs, and make neighbourhoods calmer and cleaner. More importantly, it will signal something more profound: that our cities can solve complicated problems without resorting to cruelty. 

Bangladesh has already shown it can vaccinate millions and digitise services at scale. It can apply the same discipline to the animals that share our streets. Culling is not cleanliness; it is cowardice disguised as order. Choose coordination over cruelty and make compassion the new metric of urban success.

Shaikh Afnan Birahim is a postgraduate student of computing science at the University of Glasgow.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.