SCB ties up with NGO to end dog menace

An operation theatre to come up at Turkapally

Community participation and support is needed for successful implementation of the programme and make SCB a rabies free zone

CH Saibaba

Secunderabad Cantonment Board, at last decided to put an end to the stray dog menace after receiving numerous complaints from all its eight wards, particularly from slum areas and in the military area.SCB has a population of three lakh people and more than 20,000 stray dogs are active in their area, in addition to the regular pet dogs maintained by the animal lovers.

In a recent decision taken in the board meeting on September 4, the board has decided to sign a pact with a voluntary organisation to catch stray dogs, sterilise, vaccinate and then release them. The NGO, Vet Animal Welfare and Rural Development Society, has been given the charge within the cantonment limits who will charge Rs 595 per dog. Temporary arrangements like constructing a shed and providing infrastructure like an operation theatre at Turkapally ground is in progress and is expected to be operational before the end of September.

SCB Chief Executive Officer Sujatha Gupta,said that they would implement Animal Birth Control /Anti-Rabies (ABC/AR) programme as envisaged by the government. She added that it has yielded tremendous results in controlling rabies in developing countries and is not simply a humane alternative. Sujatha also said, “The agency working for us will be assisted by their helpers to visit colonies and slum in the morning by 7.30 am to catch the dogs with a technique and cage them in the van for onward transmission to the dog pound at Turkapally.

They will then be operated and proper care would be taken during the pre and post operation period. After the dogs are sterilised, they would be released at the same place where they were caught.“ “Community participation and support is needed for successful implementation of the programme and make SCB a rabies free zone”, concluded Sujatha.