VISAKHAPATNAM: The growing incidents of abandoning pet dogs have forced the animal rights organisations to urge the municipal corporation to take stringent action against the pet owners who desert their pets. The number of dogs received at a dog rescue centre in the city speaks about the gravity of the situation. About 100 pedigree dogs every month are being sheltered at the centre run by Visakha Society for Protection and Care of Animals which is taking care of all the abandoned dogs.
GVMC hands over the rescued dogs to VSPCA, which is also now finding it hard to accommodate the pets at its rescue centre. Even though the municipal corporation has made microchip implant mandatory in pet dogs during registration, the pets, especially the exotic pedigrees, rescued by the various animal rescue centres are found with no microchip. Admitting that the incidents of dog desertion is increasing in the city, GVMC AMHO Dr S. Jayaram said the pet owners do not implant microchips in their pets despite the directives from the civic body This leaves no scope to trace the pet owners and impose fine or punishment as per the rules under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
“As of now, we are handing over the rescued dogs to VSPCA. We have strictly warned the pet owners to register their dogs and implant the microchip which is approximately the size of a grain of rice and is inserted under the skin of the animal,” he said. The microchip actually contains a lot of information such as unique ID of the chip, owner’s contact details breed description, vaccination schedule.
Criticising the pet owners callous behaviour, VSPCA founder and president Pradeep Kumar Nath said, “We have seen how the pets are being thrown by their owners from moving vehicles or tied to a tree in secluded place. We receive at least three to four pedigree dogs every day from popular breeds like Pug, German Shepherd, Labrador, Boxer. The people deserting dogs are not genuine pet lovers but just keep them as some kind of status symbol.”
“Most of the rescued dogs suffering from renal failure, and blindness. They are not given vaccination. We have urged the civic body to take stringent action against such people doing so,” he said. He stressed the need of strict implementation of microchip and GPS tracker during registration.
