Indian vulture extinction leads to explosion of wild dogs carrying rabies

Updates from the Brink: Dying Devils, Disappearing Vultures and a $...

The near-extinction of vultures in India, Nepal, Pakistan and other Asian countries continues to have terrible ecological side effects. Vultures used to serve an important role by consuming dead cattle and other carrion, but up to 99.9 percent of the birds have been wiped out by a reaction to the veterinary cattle drug diclofenac. The void created by their disappearance has been filled by stray dogs, which are eating the food the vultures used to consume and breeding out of control. Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that tens of millions of stray dogs roam India, biting millions of people every year. The bites would be bad enough, but many of the dogs also carry rabies, killing an estimated 20,000 people annually.