Despite repeated Lahore High Court rulings supporting humane dog population management under the Punjab Animal Birth Control Policy 2021, reports and evidence from parts of Punjab continue suggesting that street dogs are still being poisoned, shot and removed in large numbers.
Recent legal proceedings reinforced that authorities should implement sterilisation, vaccination and humane population control measures rather than indiscriminate killing. Court discussions surrounding the Punjab Animal Birth Control Policy 2021 have repeatedly focused on TNVR and CNVR approaches, Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Return, methods already recognised internationally as the most effective long-term strategy for controlling rabies and stabilising street dog populations.
Yet allegations of ongoing killings continue emerging from areas including Lahore and Rawalpindi. Rescuers, residents and activists have described dogs being poisoned, shot and dumped in open areas despite the legal commitments and policy framework now associated with humane control measures.
Images and testimony linked to Lahore have also raised concerns about decomposing dog bodies being discarded near dumping grounds close to the Ravi River, creating wider animal welfare, environmental and public health concerns.
The contradiction is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. On one side, courts, veterinary guidance and international public health bodies continue supporting vaccination, sterilisation and structured population management. On the other, reports from the ground continue describing fear-driven extermination campaigns that appear fundamentally disconnected from the scientific consensus surrounding rabies control.
This is not a uniquely Pakistani problem. Around the world, fear surrounding rabies repeatedly leads governments and municipalities toward visible, immediate acts of killing that create the appearance of action while failing to address the actual causes of disease transmission.
The science on this issue has been clear for many years.
The World Health Organization, World Organisation for Animal Health and international rabies experts consistently support mass vaccination of dogs as the primary route to rabies elimination. Stable vaccinated populations reduce transmission. Sterilisation programs help control long-term population growth. Public education, vaccination access and waste management reduce conflict and disease risk. Mass killing does not achieve these outcomes.
When dogs are removed rapidly from an area, ecological vacuums are created. New unvaccinated dogs move into the territory. Breeding increases. Population structures destabilise. Vaccination coverage collapses. Fear-driven culling often worsens the exact conditions authorities claim they are trying to solve.
This is one of the reasons many experienced animal welfare organisations strongly oppose indiscriminate culling programs.
The emotional atmosphere surrounding rabies also plays a major role. Fear changes public psychology. Ordinary encounters with dogs begin being interpreted through a lens of danger and panic. Once fear becomes politically useful, cruelty can become easier to justify publicly.
Because when violence toward animals becomes normalised as an acceptable tool of public management, societies risk becoming desensitised to cruelty itself. The consequences rarely remain confined to dogs alone.
At the same time, Pakistan’s rescuers, feeders and veterinary advocates continue trying to push for humane alternatives, often under immense pressure and hostility. Many are attempting to educate communities while also dealing with the trauma of witnessing repeated killing operations.
What is happening now places Punjab at an important crossroads. The province has an opportunity to build modern rabies prevention systems based on science rather than fear. Humane TNVR infrastructure, vaccination campaigns, veterinary access and public education are all achievable with political will, international cooperation and long-term investment.
But without enforcement, transparency and meaningful oversight, humane court-backed policy risks becoming disconnected from reality on the ground.
This conversation also extends beyond Pakistan itself. Globally, millions of dogs continue to be killed every year under policies justified through public fear rather than evidence-based disease control.
The debate is no longer about whether humane rabies control works. The evidence already exists. The real question is whether authorities are willing to invest in long-term vaccination, sterilisation and public health infrastructure instead of returning to fear-driven killing campaigns that have repeatedly failed elsewhere.
What happens next in Punjab will depend heavily on whether humane solutions receive meaningful support before fear-driven policies become further entrenched.
Pakistani rescuers and animal welfare advocates cannot carry this pressure alone. International veterinary organisations, rabies experts, humane societies and animal welfare groups should be paying close attention to what is happening now. Support for vaccination infrastructure, sterilisation programs, veterinary training and public education is urgently needed. So is international scrutiny.
Because once large-scale killing becomes embedded into public policy responses, reversing that trajectory becomes far harder. The dogs of Punjab do not need extermination campaigns presented as public health. They need science, infrastructure and humane governance.
Further reading
• United Against Rabies – The Case for Investment
• Humane World for Animals – Culls Are Not the Solution
• Why Killing Dogs Doesn’t Work – Stray Dog Solidarity Alliance
• Rabies: The Virus of Fear
