Recently, our rescue team received a call that has become all too familiar. A family had moved house, loaded their furniture onto a truck, locked the gate and driven away, leaving their dog behind. For days, neighbours watched as the confused pet waited outside the empty home, expecting the people it trusted to return. They never did. Sadly, this is not an isolated case. Every day at WAG-Rwanda, we receive messages asking: “Can you rescue another dog?” Sometimes, it is a litter of unwanted puppies abandoned by the roadside. Sometimes, it is a dog whose owner has relocated, cannot afford veterinary care or simply no longer wants the responsibility. Other times, it is a dog left tied up without food or water. These are not random incidents. They are symptoms of a much larger problem. When people see dogs roaming the streets of Kigali, the immediate conclusion is that the city has a stray dog problem. But this overlooks a more uncomfortable truth: Kigali does not simply have a dog problem. It has a responsible ownership problem. Rwanda is changing rapidly. As incomes rise and urban lifestyles evolve, more families are choosing to own dogs. This can be positive. Dogs provide companionship, encourage physical activity and can help teach children empathy and responsibility. However, dog ownership has increased faster than responsible ownership. Over the past five years, WAG-Rwanda has rescued 700 dogs, around 95 per cent of which once belonged to someone. Our shelter has operated beyond capacity for months. This is not only an animal welfare issue. It is also a public health, community safety and societal responsibility issue. Too often, we blame the animal while ignoring the human decisions that created the problem. No dog chooses to be abandoned. Abandonment is a human choice. Roaming and abandoned dogs can contribute to road accidents, livestock attacks, uncontrolled breeding and dog bites. They can also increase the risk of rabies transmission — a disease that is fatal once clinical signs appear, yet is preventable. Efforts to eliminate rabies therefore cannot focus on vaccination alone. They must also address how dogs are owned, managed and cared for. If Rwanda is serious about eliminating dog-mediated rabies and creating safer communities, responsible dog ownership must become a national priority. Dog owners have a fundamental role to play. Owning a dog means providing food, clean water, shelter and veterinary care. It means ensuring vaccination, preventing unwanted breeding, keeping dogs safely under control and recognising that bringing a dog home is a commitment for its entire lifetime. Policymakers also have an important responsibility. Mandatory dog registration and identification can strengthen accountability. Affordable vaccination and sterilisation services can support owners and reduce public health and animal welfare risks. Public education can promote responsible ownership from an early age, while laws addressing abandonment and animal cruelty should be clearly communicated and consistently enforced. These measures are not about punishing dog owners. They are about creating systems that make responsible ownership possible while ensuring that responsibility remains with the people who choose to keep animals. Most importantly, we need to change how we think about dogs. A dog should not become disposable when circumstances change. Bringing an animal into our homes creates a responsibility that lasts for its lifetime. When a dog is abandoned, both the animal and society pay the price. So, the next time we see a dog wandering our streets, perhaps the first question should not be: “Why is that dog there?” Instead, we should ask: “What happened to the person who was responsible for it?” Until we answer that question through better education, stronger accountability and policies that support responsible ownership, the problem will remain ours, not the dogs’. And the dogs should not become the target of a problem created by people. The writer is the Director of Research and Partnerships at Welfare for Animals Guild Rwanda (WAG-Rwanda).
