India, Aug. 17 -- The current debate about whether stray dogs in Delhi should have a home on the street or be rounded up into pounds has generated strong feelings on all sides. Regardless of which way a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court rules, the fundamental challenge remains curbing of rabies, the disease reported to be responsible for the death of the six-year-old which sparked this debate. Removing the roughly million stray dogs from Delhi's streets will only reduce rabies cases and deaths by less than 2% nationwide.

A more productive public health approach would be to focus on rabies rather than stray dogs. India has had enormous success in infectious disease control through vaccinations, examples being smallpox, polio, materna...