Video showing a cow and stray dogs roaming freely around a hospital in India has prompted an outcry over poor sanitation in the country’s state-run health system.
The footage shows the cow walking through corridors of the facility in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, while patients and staff make way. One bystander gives her an affectionate pat on the back.
A separate video filmed at the same hospital showed at least three stray dogs on the premises, including one trying to jump on a patient’s bed to grab some biscuits.
Cows are venerated as holy by Hindus in India and often allowed to roam freely, causing nuisance or damage, but doctors said they were dismayed at the potential risks to health and infection control.
In a separate incident late last year, a cow was filmed inside another hospital in the state of Madhya Pradesh, foraging among the medical waste bins in the intensive care unit.
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When confronted with the latest footage, the local medical superintendent told reporters that the cow had entered the hospital after a rear gate had been accidentally left open, and that an investigation had been set up into why it had not been removed immediately.
“The risk to patients of infection is high from any animal that comes in and it cannot be permitted,” said a doctor at the SRS Hospital in Banda, who did not want to be named. “I’ve heard of stray dogs wandering in but not cows. At this rate, hospitals will become like zoos.”
Uttar Pradesh has an estimated two million stray cows, many of which are let loose by farmers when they become old or too expensive to keep. They are often blamed for holding up traffic or pillaging crops. Slaughtering the animals is banned.
The state’s government has already provided bovine shelters, veterinary ambulances and a helpline for locals worried about sick cows.
Stray dogs are also seen routinely in government hospitals and this could become more common as their population also grows. Estimates put the stray dog population nationwide at some 60 million, with dog bites becoming a huge probem in most parts of the country.
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No culling is allowed, and the only way the authorities try to stabilise numbers is by sterilising dogs.
