Hotline: Barking to kill

The death of six-year old Dorcas Mensah still remains fresh on the mind of her mother Ellen Mensah. A dog in a neighbor's house where her children played bit her one afternoon.

Her husband Robert Mensah has also not come to terms with the death of their daughter.

Dorcas Mensah was bitten twice on her two hands by the rabid dog. They arrived late at a nearby clinic at Kokrobite where they live.

For close to six hours their daughter had not been attended to so she died.

“Before they attended to her, it was too late. Even that I had to be shouting on top of my voice asking where is the sense emergency we talk about? My daughter had been bleeding profusely. All her dress was soaked in blood. I had only three female children and a dog has killed one of them with only two remaining. Now I tell anybody I see that dogs are destroyers. I don't think I will ever forget what that dog has done to me,” she lamented.

When a person is bitten by a dog with veterinary records unknown, they must be given an anti-rabies injection to help fight infections.

However, in the case of little Dorcas, she was only given a few drugs after her wounds had been treated. Days later Dorcas started behaving strangely.

She was rushed to the Kaneshie Polyclinic and later referred to the Korle-Bu Teaching hospital. There, doctors confirmed Dorcas had rabies and would die.

Dogs are humans' best friends. Some people even share their beds with them. Dogs are also regarded as the most faithful of all animal companions.

But when they contract rabies, they totally lose their memory about their own owners much less their neighbors and they only bite and bark-to-kill.