A 11-year-old boy has died after a stray dog bit him on the head in Jordan.
Yahiya Islam Saleh Zaid Al Nebali was attacked outside his home in the Um Nuwara area of Amman, Jordan’s capital city, on 15th February.
He was taken to Amman’s Al Bashir Hospital by civil defence workers, where he was given rabies post-exposure treatment.
However, Yahiya ended up contracting meningitis from the bite and fell into a coma on 7th March after his health deteriorated. He passed away on 14th March.
So far this year, 946 people in the country have been bitten by stray dogs, according to Ministry of Health official, Mohamed Al-Hawarat.
A total of 5,138 people were bitten by dogs in 2022, according to Al Mamlaka TV.
The frequency of dog bites in the country have led to Jordanians calling on the authorities to tackle the issue.
Jordanian Abeer Darwazeh argued that freedom of movement, safety and health are rights, telling The Jordanian Times: “At a time when people are preoccupied with animal rights, few of us are paying attention to human rights.
“Defending animal rights is absolutely a humane thing. However, not over human beings’ interests.
“I’m not saying animals should be killed. The issue should be contained through sterilising all stray animals, whether dogs or cats.”
Shtoura Edwan, director of Animal Welfare at the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM), told The Jordan Times that GAM is committed to preventing animal cruelty and controlling the population of stray dogs through sterilisation, stating: “GAM is currently implementing the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme to control stray dogs.”
The authorities have responded to the calls for action, with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Local Administration Tawfiq Krishan confirmed that the issue of stray dogs will be solved in coordination with administrative governors and mayors.
Zarqa Governor Hassan Al-Jabour stated: "A new experiment will be applied, considered the first of its kind, to deal with stray dogs, which will end up training and rehabilitating these animals."
