从印度越过边境进入不丹的乔莫查卡，似乎没什么变化。同样的山峦绵延过境，路边商店出售的商品大多相同，模样相似的狗懒洋洋地躺在街上。然而，细心的游客可能会注意到一个不同之处：不丹一侧的狗耳朵上有缺口。
CROSS FROM India into Bhutan at Jomotshangkha and little seems to change. The same hills stretch across the border, roadside shops sell mostly identical wares and similar-looking dogs laze on the streets. Yet the observant visitor may notice one difference: the dogs on Bhutan’s side have notched ears.
这些标记意味着已绝育并接种了狂犬病疫苗。这个喜马拉雅小国已经为全部流浪狗实施了绝育。再加上大规模疫苗接种和对被咬伤者的免费治疗，这帮助不丹消除了由狗传播的人间狂犬病，使其成为仅有的三个做到这一点的国家之一。狂犬病是一种全球性祸患，在南亚尤为致命。据一项估计，印度每年约有5700人死于狂犬病。不丹最后一例人死于该病是在2023年。
Those marks signify sterilisation and vaccination against rabies. The tiny Himalayan kingdom has sterilised its entire stray-dog population. With mass vaccination and free treatment for people who’ve been bitten, this has helped eliminate human rabies carried by dogs, making Bhutan just one of three countries to do so. The disease, a global scourge, is especially deadly in South Asia. In India rabies kills some 5,700 people a year, by one estimate. Bhutan’s last human death from it was in 2023.
与体量大得多的邻国一样，不丹长期以来一直在应对流浪狗问题。20世纪80年代，射手们使用联合国世界卫生组织的麻醉枪在公共场合射狗。在一些地方，狗被喂食掺有士的宁的生肉。这场运动令不丹民众深感震惊，他们大多是佛教徒。它也没有奏效：狗的数量持续上升。
Like its much bigger neighbours, Bhutan has long grappled with stray mutts. In the 1980s marksmen used dart-guns from the UN’s World Health Organisation to shoot dogs in public. In some places dogs were fed raw meat laced with strychnine. The campaign appalled Bhutan’s people, most of whom are Buddhist. Nor did it work: dog numbers kept rising.
从2009年起，政府转向了更温和的方式。狗被捕获、绝育、接种疫苗后放归。但执行情况参差不齐。九年间约有9.2万只动物接受了处理，但疫苗接种率从未接近阻断传播所需的70%。最终是一项皇家法令让这场运动既有声势又有实效。2021年，国王下令“以专业、人道和富有同情心的方式对全部自由游荡的狗群实施绝育”。约9000名国家志愿者团体“德松”的成员帮助统计狗的数量、保存记录并动员社区。不到两年，疫苗接种率就达到了90%。
From 2009 the government switched to a gentler approach. Dogs were caught, neutered, vaccinated and released. But implementation was patchy. Over nine years some 92,000 animals were treated, but vaccination rates never got close to the 70% needed to break transmission. It took a royal decree to give the campaign bite as well as bark. In 2021 the king ordered “a professional, humane and compassionate sterilisation of the entire free-roaming dog population”. Some 9,000 members of De-suung, a national volunteer corps, helped count the dogs, keep records and stir up communities. In under two years vaccinations hit 90%.
其他亚洲国家应当予以关注。在孟加拉国和印度等地，流浪狗数量多达数百万，其中许多携带狂犬病，问题的规模可能看似令人望而生畏。但地方政府可以效仿不丹的做法，集中资源，逐个地区解决问题。
Other Asian countries should take note. The scale of the problem in places like Bangladesh and India, which host millions of stray dogs, many of them rabid, may seem daunting. But local governments could follow Bhutan’s example, pooling resources and tackling the problem one area at a time.