Fewer stray dogs in Bangalore now

Fewer stray dogs in Bangalore now

The Hindu

Animal rights organisations complain there is no space to bury animals

# Animal rights organisations patrol the city for stray dogs and take them to the pounds for sterilisation
# Koramangala centre of CUPA sterilises at least 900 dogs a month

BANGALORE: The number of stray dogs in the city has come down to 47,000 from two lakhs five years ago due to sterilisation programmes, animal rights organisations claim.

There are four organisations, including the Animal Rights Fund, Krupa, Karuna and Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA), that work in the area through a mandate provided by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike.

All of them patrol the city each day for stray dogs and take them to the pounds for sterilisation. Once this is done, the dogs are returned to the same area.

The organisations tend to animals in need of care.

`Territorial animals'

"Dogs are territorial animals. They cannot be taken out of an area and put into another one," says Lingaraj, who is in-charge of CUPA Hebbal centre. He adds that the Koramangala centre of CUPA sterilises at least 900 dogs every month.

Dilip Bafna of Animal Rights Fund says dogs that are bought to the pound are monitored for a few days.

"If we find that a dog is rabid then we put it down. We cannot risk putting it back onto the streets," he says. Animal Rights Fund, which has taken in the dog that bit 16 people on Friday, says the dog does not look rabid.

"It seems to have been provoked. There seems to be no signs of it being rabid," said Mr. Bafna.

Burial grounds

The animal rights organisations complain that there is no space to bury animals in the city, especially large ones.

Mr. Lingaraj says that CUPA has not been able to take into its custody a sick cow because finding a burial site for it is very difficult.

"We thought of having an electric crematorium on our premises, but it worked out to be too expensive," he adds.

Mr. Bafna says Animal Rights Fund is worried about how they are going to bury a very sick cow. "We are sure that it is not going to last for more than a few days. But we do not know where we can bury it."

The animal rights organisations say they have been requesting the State Government for a long time to provide area for animal burials. "This has been an outstanding demand of ours but it has not been answered," says Mr. Bafna.