Animal Birth Control Centre (ABC)

About the city. Rabies has been endemic in Afghanistan, in Kabul, and the authorities dealt with it by culling dogs, which was completely ineffective. In addition, access to human rabies vaccines in Afghanistan is extremely limited and beyond the capabilities of the average Afghan.

Goal

The aim of the project is to solve the problem of the number of free-roaming dogs on the streets of Kabul.

Implementation period. The project was launched in July 2019.

Fact

• Rabies is a 99.9% fatal disease. More than 96% of human deaths from rabies occur from the bites of infected dogs, and most of its victims are children.
• With the partnership of Mayhew and MAIL, more than 70% of the dogs were vaccinated in 16 districts of Kabul.
• Mayhew Afghanistan has vaccinated 38,023 dogs against rabies as of June 2019, and no human rabies deaths reported in Kabul in 2018.

Solutions

In 2019, Mayhew Afghanistan announced news of a Kabul neutering program, aimed to control the free-roaming dog population in the city and help to combat the spread of Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour (CTVT) and other zoonotic diseases.

The opening of the clinic means that this work can now begin, and when running at capacity about 200 dogs will be neutered there every week for the first year.

All of the clinic’s staff, dog catching team and support staff are local Afghans who are fully committed to delivering this program, which is a first for Afghanistan and for the entire region.

Following two successful years of Mayhew International’s delivering mass canine rabies vaccination program and dog data collection, the ABC Center will now also provide a spay and neuter program for the city of Kabul.

The centre has seen Mayhew, the Kabul Municipality, the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), and Kabul University team up to help solve – in a humane way – the number of free-roaming dogs on the streets of Kabul.

The goal is to neuter nearly 10,000 dogs in the first year, which will help control the current population of free-roaming dogs and create safer and healthier communities.

The dogs will be caught, taken to the ABC clinic, assessed, neutered, vaccinated against rabies, and released back to their territory in the city after they recover from surgery.

Team

Mayhew Afghanistan, Afghan authorities

Timeline

The opening ceremony was attended by more than 100 people, including the Mayor & first Deputy Mayor of Kabul, Head of Animal Directorate with Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Deputy Chancellor of Kabul University, Dean of Veterinary Faculty, representatives from Kabul Zoo, the Head of Sanitation at Kabul Municipality and Leaders from 16 districts of Kabul.

If you notice an error or inaccuracy in our editorials, please email [email protected] so we can look into it.