Residents say children and older people are afraid to step out as complaints go unanswered; a court-backed no-culling policy, patchy sterilisation and rabies deaths keep the problem unresolved.
LAHORE: Packs of stray dogs roaming residential streets have left people in parts of Lahore afraid to leave their homes, residents say, as bite cases in the city pass 30,000 this year and the provincial government’s sterilisation-based policy struggles to keep up.
Dogs move freely through lanes and residential blocks, and bites on residents and passers-by have been reported, according to complaints from residents. Children, older people and women find it difficult even to step outside, they say, and repeated complaints to the authorities have brought no effective action.
Residents have urged senior officials to take immediate steps to control the dogs.
Punjab recorded 70,586 dog-bite cases this year up to late September, 30,514 of them in Lahore, according to health department figures reported by ARY News and The Express Tribune, and at least three people died of rabies in the province in October alone. Over the longer term, a health department report to the Lahore High Court counted 232,704 bites in 2024 and 243,299 in 2025.
The figures, drawn from different reports, are not fully consistent, and doctors say many bites go unrecorded. In Lahore, the stray dog population has been estimated at more than 700,000, with 30 to 40 bite incidents a day, The Express Tribune reported in March, after a nine-year-old girl died following an attack in Township.
A policy stuck in court
Punjab’s Animal (Dogs) Birth Control Policy 2021 bans culling and relies on catching, neutering, vaccinating and releasing dogs. Rabid dogs can be put down, the government has told the court, but healthy strays must be sterilised and returned.
The Lahore High Court halted dog killing in March 2025 and this year sought written undertakings from the Punjab government, the livestock department and the Lahore Waste Management Company that the policy would be strictly enforced, after reports of a killing operation in Johar Town. Petitioners have asked the court to strike down the policy as ineffective, while animal rights groups and Jamaat-e-Islami Lahore launched a joint campaign against both cruelty to dogs and the rising number of attacks.
Sterilisation programmes need to reach a large majority of dogs in an area to reduce numbers, and have so far operated on too small a scale to make a visible difference on most streets.
Vaccine costs
Anyone bitten needs prompt cleaning of the wound and anti-rabies vaccine; severe bites also need rabies immunoglobulin. Public hospitals provide treatment free, the health department says, but private pharmacies charge around Rs2,200 a dose for the vaccine and Rs80,000 to Rs100,000 for immunoglobulin, The Express Tribune reported, and shortages have been reported in some districts.
Once symptoms appear, rabies is almost always fatal, which is why doctors urge anyone bitten to go to the nearest government hospital immediately rather than waiting.
Responsibility is spread across the Lahore Waste Management Company, the livestock department, the health department and the district administration. Lahore has had no elected councillors since 2019, so residents have no local representative to press, a gap that may close after local government elections now scheduled for February.
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