Three weeks ago, Dog Desk Animal Action moved Zambia from Stable to Watchlist on our Global Stray Dog Crisis Map. Further investigation has now uncovered enough evidence for us to change that status again.
Zambia will move from WATCHLIST to CRISIS.
This is not because we have found a single nationwide order instructing every local authority to kill stray dogs. We haven’t. It is because we are now seeing the same method of dog control appearing repeatedly across geographically separate districts. Dogs are being shot, cropped (culled) or otherwise killed through local-authority operations, and in some places those operations are described as ongoing programmes, included in public-health planning or listed among routine council services.
When we first looked at Zambia, there was a danger of interpreting individual killing operations as isolated responses to local rabies outbreaks. The evidence we have now found makes that increasingly difficult.
In Nyimba, 106 dogs were shot during a five-day operation intended to reduce the stray-dog population and prevent rabies. The council described dog destruction as an ongoing programme and said the operation formed part of its continuing rabies-control work.
Solwezi has also repeatedly used lethal control. Fifty-six stray and unvaccinated dogs were killed during a month-long elimination exercise in 2026 following a confirmed human rabies death. This was not the first such operation there. Another council exercise in 2025 resulted in 18 dogs being killed across several areas of the district.
Kasama Municipal Council launched its own month-long stray-dog elimination exercise in June 2026, saying it was intended to reduce stray-dog numbers, dog bites and the risk of rabies. The council’s Public Health Department also identifies facilitating the elimination of stray and suspected rabid dogs as one of its functions.
In Chinsali, the evidence reaches national government level. Following a confirmed rabies outbreak, Zambia’s Government told Parliament that 2,000 doses of vaccine had been dispatched and free risk-based vaccination was taking place. At the same time, it confirmed that dogs without registration or valid vaccination certificates were being put down.
Serenje provides particularly important evidence that dog killing is not always treated as an exceptional emergency measure. Council records document 76 unregistered, unvaccinated or stray dogs being killed during a four-day cropping exercise and describe the programme as ongoing. Dog cropping also appears in the council’s formal public-health planning, where the number of cropping operations conducted is used as a performance indicator.
The pattern continues elsewhere.
Chienge Town Council reported that 21 stray dogs had been cropped in one area and that veterinary officers and police were continuing the operation in other parts of the district. Mpulungu lists stray-dog cropping, described as the eradication of stray dogs, among its Public Health services and has announced plans for massive dog cropping around markets, schools, health facilities and the town centre following dog bites and confirmed canine rabies cases.
Chilubi has announced that it expects to carry out a dog-cropping exercise as part of its public-health and animal-control work, while Kalumbila also lists dog cropping among the services provided by its council.
One operation can be local. Two can still be coincidence. But when the same approach appears across numerous councils, is incorporated into municipal planning and is described as an ongoing programme or council service, we have to look at the wider pattern.
That is what has changed our assessment of Zambia. This does not mean every Zambian local authority kills stray dogs, and it does not mean the country has abandoned vaccination. In fact, Zambia is simultaneously pursuing a very different approach to rabies control.
Zambia has an official programme for the control and eventual elimination of dog-mediated rabies endorsed by the World Organisation for Animal Health. Mass dog vaccination is a central part of that programme, and substantial vaccination campaigns continue to take place. Zambia has received large quantities of rabies vaccine and has the infrastructure and international support to pursue vaccination as the primary route towards eliminating dog-mediated human rabies.
That creates a striking contradiction. In some districts dogs are being vaccinated. In others, dogs described as stray, unregistered or unvaccinated are being killed. Sometimes vaccination and killing are taking place as part of the same response.
Rabies is fatal and communities experiencing dog attacks and rabies outbreaks have legitimate public-health concerns. Authorities have a responsibility to protect people. But rabies control and killing dogs are not synonymous.
Mass dog vaccination exists precisely because the disease can be tackled at its source without attempting to eliminate free-roaming dog populations. The World Organisation for Animal Health identifies dog vaccination as the preferred method for controlling and eventually eliminating dog-mediated rabies and does not regard culling potential reservoir animals as the priority approach.
There is also an uncomfortable question when unvaccinated dogs themselves become targets for destruction. If adequate vaccination coverage has not first been achieved, killing dogs because they are unvaccinated risks making the consequences of inadequate disease-prevention coverage fall on the animals.
The evidence we have now collected means we can no longer treat lethal dog control in Zambia as a handful of disconnected incidents. We are seeing repeated operations across multiple local authorities, supported by municipal public-health structures and, in some places, embedded within routine planning and services.
That is why Zambia’s status on the Dog Desk Animal Action Global Stray Dog Crisis Map is changing from WATCHLIST to CRISIS.
The classification does not suggest that Zambia has ordered a nationwide cull. It reflects the documented pattern we can see: recurrent and institutionalised lethal dog control across multiple local-authority areas, operating alongside a national rabies programme capable of delivering mass vaccination.
We will continue to document where dog cropping and elimination operations are taking place, how many dogs are being killed, what legal powers are being used and whether vaccination is being adequately delivered before lethal control is authorised.
Zambia has a serious rabies problem that needs an effective response. It also has access to one of the most important tools for solving it: mass dog vaccination.
The growing evidence that dogs continue to be systematically killed alongside that programme is why we can no longer consider Zambia simply a country to watch.