Penang has started a culling operation of stray dogs since September 16 amid a rabies alert, sparking uproar from animal lovers who insist on vaccination as an alternative. ― File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 ― An animal lover in Penang is now no longer against the state government’s culling of stray dogs over a rabies outbreak after she was bitten by one, local media reported today.

D. Mangleswari, 28, noted the danger that would be posed by dogs infected with rabies.

“Previously, I thought that it was wrong to cull dogs, but now I realise that many people’s lives are put at risk due to the dogs.

“The authorities were not able to catch the dog that bit me, so we do not know if it was a rabid dog or not.

“However, if a dog that may not have had rabies can attack in such a manner, one can only imagine how a rabid dog would attack,” she was quoted saying by local daily New Straits Times (NST) when met at the Pantai Hospital there.

Recounting the Tuesday night attack, Mangleswari said a dog suddenly came up to her and bit her while she was walking to her car.

The dog continued to attack her even after she pushed it away, with Mangleswari saying that she would have sustained far more serious injuries if boys at a nearby field had not come to her aid.

Initially thinking that the dog was playful, she said she did not know what provoked it to bite her, with this incident also being the first time she was attacked by a canine.

Her mother M. Santha also backed the Penang government’s culling of stray dogs, saying that her daughter had thankfully only been bitten in the thigh.

“What if the dog had bitten her neck? If there was no one there, my daughter would have been dead,” she was quoted saying by NST.

According to the NST, 51 people including Mangleswari have been bitten by dogs since last week, with 10 new cases reported on Wednesday alone.

Penang has started a culling operation of stray dogs since September 16 amid a rabies alert, sparking uproar from animal lovers who insist on vaccination as an alternative.

But the Penang government has reportedly said it is acting on the recommendations of experts from the Health Ministry and the Veterinary Department in conducting the culling operation, which has seen 342 stray dogs killed as of this Tuesday.

According to another NST report today, Penang Veterinary Department director Dr Siti Salmiyah Tahir said the department is expected to get 5,000 doses of rabies vaccine next week, with the 300 doses passed on from other states expected to be used up by this week.

Penang was previously a rabies-free state and so did not keep any vaccines for the sudden outbreak, Dr Siti Salmiyah said in explaining the state’s vaccine shortage.