Garbage and animal lovers feeding strays to blame

The stray dog menace is a reflection of the present urban landscape, which is filled with garbage and unlicensed meat shops and lacks  a robust city Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme. The absence of concerned community monitors, who can intervene and engage with zonal NGOs or agencies conducting the programme and a lack of BBMP supervision and presence in the field to assist the public in  successful implementation of the ABC programme are also to blame.  The fact that dog breeders and others, who get away with abandoning their dogs on roads in the absence of a heavy licensing fee is another contributory factor.

While  illegal garbage dumping is one reason for the presence of dogs on the streets,  the feeding of community dogs by dog lovers is also to blame.

But the latter can actually be very helpful for both the dogs and the ABC programme if it carries with it the rider that  all dogs must be sterilised, vaccinated and monitored regularly by the feeders. Also, feeding must be done in areas where the public is not inconvenienced and especially not before house gates or in front of apartment blocks. Community dog feeders are important for monitoring the number of strays on their streets, laisoning with official agencies,  sounding alerts in case of  a dog bite and taking preventive steps.

Unfortunately, they have been much maligned, but counselling the public on both sides of the canine divide can help in resolving the situation greatly.

The need of the hour is to minimise the numbers of dogs on the streets  because their elimination is not a reality that can be ach-ieved immediately. The Ani mal Birth Control programme is a time tested and WHO approved solution for a humane reduction in their numbers.

One solution may be to engage with the community dog feeders and help set up a system of feedback and responsible feeding methods that can help the ABC agencies rapidly access dogs that may need sterilisation, vaccination, treatment or sheltering.

In areas where this is not possible, the responsibility falls on agencies to cooperate with the people and help them handle and sterilise the dogs in their areas. They need to help identify the chasers and biters, minimise breeding issues, which make the dogs aggressive during the mating season or during protection of their litters and maintain a consistent ongoing dialogue with the ABC teams allocated to their areas.

City shelters may be a good idea, but they should be a public- private initiative with the government providing the land and infrastructure and the NGOs doing what they are best at – providing the care, treatment and rehabilitation required by the animals.