Thousands of stray dogs shot in Baghdad

Thousands of stray dogs have been shot dead in the Iraqi capital Baghdad after a remarkable increase in attacks on residents.

Veterinary teams and police officers have been roaming the streets of Baghdad and its suburbs on daily basis in the past three months, hunting down dogs and killing so far more than 58,000 of the stray animals held responsible for increasing casualties amongst citizens.

The shootings are part of a government campaign to improve the everyday life of Iraqi citizens and to restore relative normalcy to the city that has been the scene of several violent incidents for the past seven years. The campaign was announced in late 2008, but implementation only started in April 2010 after funds were approved.

The number of stray gods, estimated at 1.25 million, has been lately increasing as life returned to the capital and open-air markets got back into business. As the city gradually returns to its bustling life, it becomes easier for dogs to find food and they start congregating in wherever there is litter, according to the provincial veterinary directorate.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm with which the campaign was met when it was first announced, repeated attacks by stray dogs necessitated implementation. Dogs specifically attack children, injuring them severely and sometimes even killing them.

The 20 shooter teams in charge of culling stray dogs start their work at 6:00 am. They have to coordinate with the security forces in the area in which they work so that they don’t mistake them for insurgents and fire back at them.

Residents are also notified in advance of the teams’ advent and are warned not to pick up any pieces of meat they might find on the ground because they could be poisoned, an alternative way of killing the dogs.

Before the U.S. led invasion in 2003, stray dogs were systematically shot, yet the war made the problem recede to the background as more serious security issues arose in the war-torn country.