New Delhi   

Civic body dogged by menace

NEW DELHI: Calling the recent tongue-in-cheek proposal of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to ship the Capital’s stray dogs to other countries for their consumption “a joke in bad taste”, animals’ rights activist and Member of Parliament Maneka Gandhi on Friday called on MCD Standing Committee Chairman Vijender Gupta to discuss the dog menace issue.

At a meeting that was also attended by MCD Veterinary Services Director R. B. S. Tyagi and Additional Commissioner (Health and Establishment) Janak Digal, a three-pronged approach was decided upon to arrest the escalating number of canines on the Capital’s streets.

“Firstly, a comprehensive two-month census will be carried out by a non-government organisation, Wildlife SOS, to ascertain accurately the number of stray dogs in Delhi. This census will be conducted at a cost of Rs.5.47 lakh. Secondly, the civic body will start spending on this scheme from its own coffers and await funds from the Animal Welfare Board. And thirdly, all NGOs involved will be paid on a regular basis,” said Mr. Gupta, adding that henceforth zones with a greater number of dogs will be targeted and two abandoned municipal schools will be utilised as sterilisation centres. According to Ms. Gandhi, the number of stray dogs in the Capital was vastly over-stated: “I have spent my entire life for the cause of animals and I know there are no more than 1.75 lakh stray dogs here. Of these, over 75,000 have been sterilised. The problem of dog-bite arises when, post-sterilisation, the MCD vans release the animals in a different zone rather than the zone where they had been picked up from.” Ms. Gandhi said the only remedy for the dog “menace” was the World Health Organisation-advocated sterilisation procedure that would automatically put a check on the canine population.

The over 11,000 illegal meat shops and garbage dumps that were strewn all over the Capital were a favourite haunt with dogs and there was a direct correlation between the amount of garbage on the roads and the number of dogs thriving on the streets, she said. Even so, Delhi was on the verge of being declared rabies-free since there had been no detected cases in the past two years, she added. Mr. Gupta said that to ensure a hazard-free disposal of dead canines, the incinerator at the Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre would soon be made functional.

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