Jayakrishnan Vu
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 24: Chasing a stray dog may not be a difficult task for many, but the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been chasing the target of sterilising the stray canine population in the capital city with little impressive success.
By its own count, the BMC says Bhubaneswar has 32,000 stray dogs – already a controversial figure as both animal rights activists and city residents say there are many more – the civic body’s Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme has managed to sterilize only about 11,500 street dogs till the end of July. BMC is literally struggling to meet the target set by the officials – sterilization of all the stray dogs the officials said are present on the city’s streets.
Even after repeated pleas from citizens to speed up the sterilization process, the authorities concerned are yet to take any concrete action to meet the target. BMC additional commissioner Alok Kar said the ABC programme recently received about `12 lakh from the Housing & Urban Development department to carry out sterilization operations on stray dogs.
“Our effort is to ensure that the city becomes rabies free. BMC spends about `500 to sterilize each stray dog,” said Kar. BMC has employed two veterinary surgeons, two dog-catching vehicles with all the required equipment and four dog catchers to complete the target, said BMC officials.
Although the civic body claims to carry out about 400 sterilisations a month, state health department officials said that only 250-300 dogs could be sterilized a month as there is only one veterinary hospital in the city with the required infrastructure, dedicated staff, vehicles to catch dogs and a proper kennel to keep them during the operations.
“We are working to complete the drive in the city as soon as possible because rabies can lead to a sufferer’s death and dogs act as carriers of this disease,” said Dr Bikash Das, the nodal officer of the sterilization programme.
He said Sahid Nagar Government Veterinary Hospital performs sterilization operations after vaccinating dogs against rabies.
An Ovariohysterectomy operation is conducted on bitches and operations for open castration on male dogs, added Dr Das. Dogs are given anesthesia before the operations, which last an hour each. The dogs are kept empty stomached for about 12 hours before the operations. “After the operations, the dogs are kept in kennels in the hospital and their health conditions are monitored before they are finally released to areas from where they had been caught,” Dr Das stated.
The life span of a dog averages about 10-12 years. A bitch could produce four to ten puppies at a time and gives birth twice a year, though only two to four of the puppies generally survive every time, informed Dr Das.
Easier availability of food from hotels and residential areas has led to a rise in the stray dog population in the city, he added.
