‘Keeping ferocious dogs has serious implications’
Dogs are said to be good companions. They could be a delight when properly nurtured as many of them are trained to provide security in the immediate neigbourhood for their owners. But, ISIOMA MADIKE, in this report, narrates how dogs in Nigeria, in recent times, have constituted nuisance and posed health challenges for the larger society
Femi lives within Demurin neighbourhood in Ketu, a suburb of Lagos. He is the last child of a family of six including his parents. Elkabadu, their dog, barked regularly to draw attention to any unwelcomed guests to their household.
However, Femi, who is the baby of the house plays with it a lot and enjoys seeing their family dog run after his father. The man feeds the dog playfully with its favourite; some grinded meat bones.
It is usually a delightful display of companionship between man and dog. But, not everyone in the house enjoys this scene. For instance, Femi’s mother would complain ceaselessly and tries, though without success most times to stop her favourite son from playing with the dog. However, an incident changed all that. The dog saved the family from thieves, who had come to steal their valuables when all the occupants of the house were fast asleep.
Before that incident, burglars had constantly wreaked havoc in some other houses within the neighbourhood without any resistance of any sort. “I never knew Elkabadu could be that brave to 
ward off threats and provide reliable security for us. I now realise how useful the dog is to my family,” she said. In many other families, dogs also play important role as protectors, and are often trained by owners to attack.
From the ages past, dogs have proven invaluable to man either as flock shepherd or hunter’s companion in the forest. Today, some have been tempered to become guards, while others serve as pets. Unfortunately, this partnership is not without concerns.
While dogs are pleasant companions that can be trusted, they could, when improperly handled, inflict untold injuries that could prove fatal. In recent times, it has become apparent that one of dog roles, especially as an attack instrument in homes, is somehow underestimated.
Today, dogs do not only attack perceived enemies but have, in recent weeks, turned to owners and their households. Talk about a dog gone crazy, a couple around Akowonjo area of Lagos would tell a better story. They had to be hospitalised after they were attacked by their own pet dog.
The couple was driving with the dog in the car through the Ikeja shopping mall, when it turned on them and attacked them. The man and his wife, both suffered serious injuries, with witnesses saying they were bitten repeatedly in the arms.
During the attack, the wife was able to call out for help, while the husband stopped in a parking lot and managed to jump out of the vehicle. The woman was said to have been attacked when she attempted to get the dog under control. Passers-by had to use sticks to hold the dog down while they waited for animal control officers from a nearby private company within the Alausa vicinity to take it away while its owners were taken to the hospital at the Bank Anthony end of the state capital.
Just recently, another woman, who went to visit her friend at Olodi-Apapa area of Lagos State, was bitten in her breast by a dog. The victim, identified as Helen Asuquo, was said to have visited one Mary Alaegbu in her residence along Kirikiri road. When she arrived at the veranda of the house, Asuquo saw Alaegbu’s crawling baby and decided to cuddle him.
It was then that a dog, named Whiskey, probably misconstruing her action as an attack on the baby, ran out from the backyard and bit her in the breast and the baby fell from her laps.
According to neighbour’s account, “the dog will not allow a stranger get close to that baby because it is the own-er’s child. The stranger did not know that the dog does not allow strangers to touch the baby. When she came the baby’s mother was inside their apartment. Before she would come out of the room the dog had given her friend a real shock.
The dog bit her in the breast,” the neighbour said. The fatal dog attack on a six-day-old baby named Juliet at Alagbado in Ogun State will equally horrify parents and animal lovers alike.
The tragedy comes barely a week after Alaegbu’s dog bite saga, and just three days that another four-year-old Chioma was killed by her family’s bulldog at Onipanu in Lagos. It has, indeed, been a distressing and terrifying roll call. But despite this, most owners of dogs will still look at their docile pet and say there is no way it could ever turn into a killer.
But, they have often been proved wrong. According to veterinary doctors, dogs, whatever their breed, are dangerous and are never safe to be left alone with a baby or child, no matter how well-trained; they will revert to their natural instincts if they feel threatened or in danger, they say. Like the Olodi-Apapa dog horror, a 45-year-old commercial driver, known as Saturday Akpomose, narrowly escaped death after he was attacked by seven dogs at Ajah area of Lagos State in April. The timely intervention of residents and passers-by saved the driver from the dogs.
Akpomose, who hails from Akwa Ibom State, had gone to the area with his wife to visit his in-law, Christian Peter, when the dogs pounced on him. According to investigations, the dogs, owned by a navy captain, were being taken out to ease themselves at a nearby uncompleted building, when they saw Akpomose and seized him. The matter was reported at Ogombo Police Division, which referred Akpomose to the General Hospital at Akodo, for immediate treattwoment due to the severity of his injuries. “My wife and I went to visit my in-law on Sunday.
He lives at Okun Ajah Road, in Eti-Osa East Local Council Development Area. Later, on Tuesday morning, I just strolled out of the compound and came across the dogs. As I stepped out, I saw a security man coming out with several dogs. They were very huge Alsatian dogs. I was terrified when I saw them and as I tried to go back in, they overpowered the man holding them.
“As I bent down to pick a stone and scare them away, they pounced on me and that was all I knew. They bit me in almost all parts of my body. As I screamed, some residents came out and tried to scare away the dogs with sticks. My screams even woke up my in-law, who was asleep in the house. At a time, I became weak and unconscious and it was the people who rushed me to the hospital,” Akpomose recounted.
Also, the news that a young boy died from dog bite after his father died from a similar cause did not only unsettle Mologede Estate, an unplanned but tranquil neighbourhood in the Meiran area of Lagos but jolted many Lagosians a few years back. It was one of the unbelievable tragic stories of mad dogs that Nigerians have come to live with in recent times.
James Musa, a boisterous 13-year-old had relocated to Lagos from Abuja, after a rabid dog fatally bit his father in the Federal Capital Territory. On the often deserted inner roads in the estate, Musa and his teenage friends played football. They would kick the ball into any neighbouring house where residents would scream at them to get them right back on the streets.
Unfortunately, Musa, out of fear of reprimand, hid the incident from his aunt and her husband. According to reports, the cycle of deaths did not start with Musa. A huge Alsatian dog owned by 
a resident of the estate, had allegedly caused the string of deaths, which now has Musa and Aishat, a 21-year-old National Diploma graduate on its list. Musa allegedly touched the dog while playing with his friends, which infuriated the dog as it jumped on him, mauling the boy just under his right eye. “Unknown to its owners and neighbours, the Alsatian was not done with its deadly mission.
Without provocation, it bit Aishat on her right palm on the night of the same day it attacked Musa,” reports said. Yet, the one Nigerians would not forget in a hurry occurred in October, 2014.
A four-year-old identified as Omonigho Abraham was the victim. He had unexpected encounter with two savage dogs. Abraham allegedly had his scalp eaten up by the two dogs and dragged across Adegboyega Street, Akesan Estate, in the Igando area of Lagos State. The dogs did not stop there. They further chewed Abraham’s skin and exposed his skull during the attack. He was said to have been dragged through his parents’ compound for more than one hour while policemen and sympathizers watched helplessly at the entrance of the house for fear of being attacked by the savage dogs.
No fewer than seven policemen from the Igando Police Station reportedly stood at the gate, confused. The immediate elder brother of the victim, seven-year-old Osemudiamen, who was said to have witnessed the incident said, “we were riding a bicycle in the compound when the big dogs Jack and Gadhafi started barking at us. Later, they moved towards us.
My elder brother and I quickly ran upstairs and locked the door while Omo (Omonigho), who could not run fast, was left behind. “When he got to the door, he knocked that we should open for him and as we did, one of the dogs forced his way into the house with him. We all ran out. Bobby jumped down from upstairs and I also jumped. But Omo could not jump, so the dog attacked him.
The other dog also joined in the attack and there was nothing we could do,” Osemudiamen. Another eye witness also recounted that “the police came, but there was nothing they could do. The dogs were growling as they ate the child alive and that sent fear into everyone. Nobody could move inside to challenge them. Everybody was just shouting in confusion and wielding sticks.”
The victim’s mother, who was away when the incident happened, said, “when I got there, I met a crowd. They asked me not to go inside, but I refused to listen to them. One of the dogs emerged from the corridor with blood stains in its mouth. I ran inside. The other dog, on sighting me, pounced, but I fought back. It later ran away. I called on people who joined me to take him to a hospital.
This has been a nightmare I want to wake up from.” This, perhaps, may have been why a man identified simply as Solomon had angrily maimed a stray dog for pestering him and eventually killed it.
However, his seemingly wicked act angered three police officers, who were instructors at the Mobile Police Training Camp, Gwoza, in Borno State, as they tortured him to death.
The officers, Sergeant Adewale (alias OC Gbale), Corporal Ezekiel and Corporal James, were later dismissed and put on trial in a civil court for culpable homicide.
Police also arraigned a 34-year-old woman, Blessing Eluwa, in a Magistrates’ Court at Sango-Ota, Ogun State, for allowing her dog to bite her neighbour. Eluwa, who lives at No. 4, Ehiorobo Street, off The Bells area, Sango-Ota, faced a two-count charge of causing breach of peace and allowing her dog to cause harm to her neighbour.
This was in March. She was accused of negligently allowing her Alsatian dog, which should have been chained or caged, to bite one Herny Omoniyi. However, animal doctors have expressed concern about the indiscriminate rate of dog ownership without commensurate monitoring efforts from government.
They have called on relevant authorities to establish an animal registry and a tagging system as a precondition for pet ownership in the country. They further propose an annual anti-rabies vaccination, which they said is compulsory for dogs. In what looks like a response to the doctor’s request, the Lagos State government, following the death of a boy in Badagry area of the state as a result of dog bite, vowed to clampdown on stray dogs within the metropolis.
Expressing government anger at the incident, Commissioner for agriculture, Enock Ajiboso, disclosed that a dog bit the boy in Badagry and he was rushed to the Badagry General Hospital but died later after he was withdrawn from the hospital by his parents. The commissioner lamented that of recent there had been an increase in cases of dog bite, especially by stray dogs in Badagry area. He cited a case of a young boy bitten by a dog in that neighbourhood a few months ago.
“On investigation by the local health officers and which was corroborated by our veterinary officers in charge of the area, symptoms exhibited by the boy prior to his death were consistent with that of suspected rabies, which he must have contracted from the dog,” Ajiboso said.
To him, a dog that went on biting anything it came across was not a normal dog and must be thoroughly investigated. According to the commissioner, in most cases where there is unprovoked biting by a dog, especially a dog that is once friendly, then rabies is highly suspected. Rabies is a viral disease that affects all warm blooded animals.
The disease is common among dogs, particularly dogs that are not vaccinated against the disease, as well as stray dogs that lack care. The disease is transmitted mainly through bites. Studies show that if a dog has rabies, it will die within two weeks.
There are symptoms peculiar to dogs infected with rabies, such as excessive salivation, unprovoked and aggressive biting of anything it comes across, aggressive feeding on anything that dogs will normally not eat, paralyses and eventual death.
The commissioner warned anybody affected by dog bite to wash the site of the bite thoroughly with soap in running water and immediately seek medical attention.
“By the time the symptoms of rabies show forth in man, especially after a dog bite, death is almost inevitable, because there is no cure,” he said. He nonetheless, appealed to residents to take any wild dog roaming the streets and suspected of having rabies, to the nearest local veterinary clinic for thorough examination instead of killing it in order to certify its state of health. He warned all pet owners to be responsible by making sure that their pet animals were not allowed to stray, as well as carry out all necessary vaccination programmes. According to him, government would no longer tolerate stray animals, especially dogs, attacking people and causing havoc.
In Nigeria, dog breeding has been on the rise in the last three decades, particularly the foreign breeds. This happens without due consideration for the right environment and handling skills. As a matter of fact, some people cannot identify the dog they own by their breed, let alone their pedigree and temperament.
Unknown to these people, ownership of some of these dog breeds has been prohibited in some European countries, America, Canada, among others due to the various havocs they have wreaked on the society. Incidentally, people get bitten by dogs on a daily basis and usually, children are the most vulnerable targets of attack.
Investigations have revealed that male children bear much of the brunt of attack because they are the ones that will naturally want to explore playing with dogs with no natural sense of fear.
It is a situation that is worrisome because it often leads to very deleterious consequences for the victim. With aggressive dogs, it is clear that a lot depends on someone’s interactions with these animals.
This is because most dogs attack when people fail to manage their relationship with them or with plain naivety, they do not appreciate the psyche of dogs and often cross the thin line of safety when they should not. However, researchers have not come to any conclusions as to whether a dog can just decide to bite an individual or not. What is certain is that there are predisposing factors that influence the decision of a canine to bare its teeth and apply the slammer on a victim.
These factors are generally nature and nurture-related, with more bordering on how people relate with dogs. Dr. Olutunde Olarinde, a Veterinary Surgeon/Clinician speaks of the implications, risks and treatments of dog bites. Preventing and controlling rabies both in humans and pets, according to him, cannot be much different.
“Preventing rabies is by avoiding contacts, fights and then bites from other pets or stray animals whose rabies immunisations have not been confirmed to have been done and verified .This is in addition to avoiding your pets roam about carelessly and mingling with stray animals and wild life, rabid or non-rabid and most importantly, regular, consistent, conscientious and preventive vaccinations and re-vaccinations of your pets.
There is no cure or treatment for a rabid animal or pet and death of such pet or animal is inevitable,” he said. Wound management of a person bitten by a suspected animal or pet, he said, is very important.
“This should start by immediate, first-aid treatment of the affected bite site(s) by washing thoroughly with soap and running water. It washes away much of the virus shed in the saliva of the suspected rabid animal from the bite site(s). If available, applying ethylated spirit, antiseptic solutions or a virucidal agent like povidine-iodine solution will further kill and reduce the viral load. It is also important to confirm and verify the rabies immunisation status and to see a genuine and qualified veterinarian,” Olarinde advised.
To him, the government is not helping matters. “We have the Task Force Lagos Ministry of Agriculture and Stray Animal Control Programme. Their duty is to take custody of any stray animal seen.
It would have been a very good opportunity also for the government to make revenues because revenues could be made from selling vaccination. When they hammer the need to vaccinate their pet, people would be persuaded to come with their pets for vaccination. “If there are bills and acts to go with it, I personally would be happy. It would be like killing two birds with a stone. But these agencies are not also equipped with the necessary tools for work, how will they perform their duty.
Because you expect the Task Force to come to Abule- Egba in search of stray dogs on foot due to the fact that there is no vehicle. If the government would step in and work together with these agencies then, it would be better for us,” he added.
Dogs are some of the most adorable pets a person can have. There are very few other pets that can even come close to a dog. Not even a cat can beat a dog in being a man’s best friend. From the ages past, dogs have proven invaluable to man either as flock shepherd or hunter’s companion in the forest. Today, some have been tempered to become guards, while others serve as pets.
However, while they are pleasant companions that can be trusted, they could inflict untold injuries that could prove fatal. Also, dogs are known to transmit rabies, if an infected dog bites a human being.
But a veterinary doctor, Wilson Ekaun, argued that while the Europeans and the Americans detest vicious dogs, Nigerians, would prefer them for security. According to him, as long as Nigerians are left unprotected in the face of mounting security challenges, the only way to get personal security is to fortify oneself with ferocious dogs to deter intruders and criminal element from attacking.
He said the issue of promulgating a law that seeks to prohibit owning some of these wild dogs in Nigeria may not work because government has abdicated its responsibility of providing security to the citizens.
In like manner, the immediate past chairman, Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association (NVMA), Lagos Chapter, Dr. Oladapo Collins, said, although, keeping ferocious dogs has serious implications, Nigerians need their services for now.
• Additional report from Chinyere Onah.