The Hindu : Front Page : 105 dogs caught in special drive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 05, 2007
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105 dogs caught in special drive

Staff Reporter

Lack of trained personnel leaves mahanagara palike in a fix

BATTLE-READY: Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike launched a drive against stray dogs in Bangalore on Sunday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: In the wake of the killing of a five-year-old boy by a pack of 15 dogs in Bangalore on Thursday, 105 dogs, including those not sterilised, were caught and despatched to dog shelters by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in a special drive launched here on Sunday.

However, the drive, which follows public anger, faced teething problems due to lack of trained dogcatchers, according to sources in the BBMP. "We had six dogcatchers who have retired. The BBMP did not hire more as the dog control management was given to the non-governmental organisations (NGOs)," according to sources.

Even as the BBMP pressed into service 20 vans equipped with cages to catch the dogs, it had no trained personnel to do the job. "We are planning to have dogcatchers from the NGOs to train willing pourakarmikas," BBMP Chief Health Officer Gayathri Devi told The Hindu.

The sources said that the much-touted team from Kerala might not arrive but talks are on with the municipal corporation of Ahmedabad to seek its expertise in catching dogs.

"The 20 vans, along with the our existing six, went around the city. They mainly visited areas from where we received complaints on our helplines. They also went to three or four `hotspots' in the city," said Ms. Devi.

The BBMP has identified 48 such "hotspots" and they include railway stations, markets, places of worship and other populated areas, a release from the corporation said.

The BBMP is also scouting for land at Kannahalli, Mandur and Mavallipura to build an animal shelter. On March 7, it will hold a meeting with residents welfare associations to address the stray dog menace in their areas.

The civic body's damage control exercise includes extending the Animal Birth Control programme to the new areas under its purview. A canine census, NGOs' participation and the logistics are the issues on the agenda.

Report sought

Animal Husbandry Department Head N. Rajgopal has been requested to study and submit a report on the behaviour of street dogs in the city while NGOs have been entrusted with reports on the Chandra Layout and BEML Layout incidents where Sridevi and Manjunath fell prey to dog attacks.

Candlelight vigil

Stray Dog-Free Bangalore held a candlelight vigil in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in memory of Manjunath. About 250 people, mostly from BEML where Manjunath's father works and in whose residential quarters the attack took place, participated.

Manjunath's elder brother Vignesh lit the first candle. Siddeshwara, Manjunath's uncle, said: "We have lost our child. We do not want anyone else to face the same situation."

C.V. Subramaniam, president of the organisation, calling for the removal of stray dogs from the city, said: "If no other city in the world has (street) dogs, then why should Bangalore alone have them? We cannot afford to lose so many of our children to dogs."

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