Vets to be trained at Blue Cross

The Humane Society International/India and Blue Cross of Hyderabad launched a series of trainings for 112 government veterinarians from Andhra Pradesh at the Blue Cross of Hyderabad facility in Jubilee Hills on Monday.

The veterinarians have been divided into seven batches and will undergo a 14-day training practical training for spay/neuter surgery of dogs between April and July 2016.

Due to the practical nature of this training programme, more 2,300 dogs in Hyderabad will be sterilised and vaccinated during this time.

As part of the training, HSI/India is providing experienced veterinarians as trainers, surgery equipment and a dog catching vehicle. Along with practical training, knowledge about best practices in pre and post-op care for dogs will also be given.

Rahul Sehgal, director, HSI explains, “Our goal is to train these government veterinarians to perform high-quality surgeries and share our best practices with them so that they can go back to their districts and replicate an effective and high-quality humane dog population program.”

All training sessions will be held at Blue Cross of Hyderabad and they will also be providing dog catchers and medicines required for the surgeries of the dogs.

Through these trainings, HSI/India will also be able to strengthen Blue Cross of Hyderabad’s capacity by training their dog-catchers in humane hand-catching method and training their staff to use HSI/India’s technology used to maintain database.

Amala Akkineni, Chairperson, Blue Cross of Hyderabad says, “When our patron, Akkineni Nagarjuna funded our veterinary surgery building, we were hopeful that Blue Cross would one day become a valuable resource for animal surgery for the Telugu speaking States.

It is our dream come true and we are committed to reducing stray animal population the humane way.” Dr Manmohan Singh, Principal Secretary, Animal Husbandry, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, has been the back-bone of driving this training programme; he says, “I am extremely happy to learn that Blue Cross, Hyderabad is conducting ABC surgical training for the veterinarians of AP, Telangana and other States of the country.

It is a very important step towards control of stray dog population and thereby controlling cases of dog bites and rabies. The Government of AP will support this programme in all possible ways”

These trainings will enable the State government’s Animal Husbandry departments to implement animal birth control protocols, following the Supreme Court’s order in November 2015 and February 2016. Following this step taken by the Andhra Pradesh State Government, the State of Telangana has also shown keen interest in getting veterinarians trained from their State as well.