Dogs are linked to close to 30% of road accidents in Sri Lanka, and the state spends around Rs. 1 billion a year on rabies vaccinations, a veterinarian told a media briefing in Colombo.
Dr. Chamith Nanayakkara, founder of the Veterinary Association for Animal Catch Management through Psychological Methods, said the street-dog population is placing a significant burden on the economy, Hiru News reported.
His central argument is that the problem is a human one. He attributed the growing street-dog population largely to irresponsible owner behaviour and poor waste management, which gives abandoned animals easy access to food — the condition that allows a street population to sustain itself.
The legislative fix he is backing
Nanayakkara said proposed new legislation could provide a long-term solution, and described its two halves.
The first is registration: all owned dogs would have to be registered with the relevant local authority. The second is assignment of responsibility — stray dogs with no owner or designated caretaker would become the responsibility of local councils, with the government taking on vaccination and sterilisation of street dogs so that animals living on the streets are not left uncared for.
He called the approach a positive concept addressing both animal welfare and public safety, and said the financial impact runs beyond vaccination costs, since dog-related road accidents carry their own economic losses.
That legislation is already before the public. A bill making dog registration mandatory, with a fine of Rs. 2,000 for failing to register, was reported on 13 September — the measure Nanayakkara’s remarks are directed at.
Read the 30% figure carefully
The claim is that dogs are linked to nearly 30% of road accidents, not that they cause them. Hiru gives no source dataset, no year, and no definition of what counts as a dog-linked accident — whether a collision with an animal, a swerve to avoid one, or both. Nor does the report separate owned dogs from strays in that figure, which matters given that the proposed law treats the two categories differently.
The Rs. 1 billion rabies figure is similarly unattributed in this account. Sri Lanka is pursuing rabies elimination by 2030 and recorded 20 rabies deaths this year.
Not reported
Hiru does not give an estimate of the national street-dog population, the year or source of the 30% accident figure, or the number of dog-related accidents behind it. It does not say who convened the briefing, whether other veterinary bodies share the association’s position, or what the registration scheme would cost local authorities to administer.
