Nowadays people are worried about the possibility of Balinese dogs’ extinction due to the mass killing performed recently.
Since long time ago Bali dogs have always been a fixture in the life of Bali. Their story had been mentioned in epics and legends, such as the famous Mahabharata. But not everybody realizes that Bali street dogs are one of the last purest races left in the world, next to Indian dogs or Australian dingoes, that are not crossbreed nor have evolved as adaptation to certain weather. In Bali, the race of native dog is called Kuluk Kacang or Anjing Kacang (nut dogs).

Nowadays people are worried about the possibility of Balinese dogs’ extinction due to the mass killing performed recently. The main reason of the street dog elimination was to stop the rabies contamination, as Bali dogs are declared to be prone to rabies. In 1980s one of the tourists brought a dog with rabies into Bali and it has been widespread ever since.

Rabies, or hydrophobia, is a zoonotic (transmissible to humans) animal disease. It is caused by rabies virus, of the genus Lyssavirus, family Rhabdoviridae. The rabies virus is issued together with the saliva of infected animals and is transmitted through bites, scratches or through open-wounded skin.

There are several ways they can do before they can eliminate dogs with rabies, which are socialization, vaccination, traffic policing and population control. Theoretically, the possibility of rabies virus contamination is only 1-2 dogs. “Mostly it can be up to 10, but the possibility is small. So actually the rabies virus contamination is not high,” said the professor at Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Udayana University, Bali, Prof. Dr. drh. I Gusti Ngurah Mahardika.

Therefore elimination, with a more reasonable way with anesthesia to minimize the pain, is considered to be the last option. Apparently, the street dogs are being shot dead randomly by an authorized party although not all of them had the rabies. It seems that the shooters aimed to any Bali dogs in the streets without checking first if it had rabies or not.


The mass elimination had made people angry, especially the dog/animal lovers. Several organizations, such as World Animal Protection (previously named WSPA), BAWA (Bali Animal Welfare Association), BARC (Bali Dog Adoption and Rehabilitation Centre), Bali Street Dogs, and few others are concerned about this, especially that the mass elimination is threatening the survival of Balinese dogs’ population.


It concerned other parties, too, and the fact that Balinese Governor, Mangku Pastika, also allowed the mass killing had raged more people and made them concerned about the death of Balinese original tradition and life ethics. The topic clearly bothers a group of students in Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI) Denpasar, who then produced a documentary film about it. Under the Film & Television major, Sri Redjeki Films released Sang Asu (The Dog) early in 2016. The film was screened for public along with 7 other films produced by students on the faculty’s third anniversary last Friday, April 22.