BMP must act on stray dog menace

BMP must act on stray dog menace

The Hindu

Bangalore: G.S. Narayanan, former Deputy Manager of NABARD, says: "Stray dog menace is an issue that concerns all of us and more worrying because children are the victims of dog bite."

The situation in Jayanagar 4th Block, which he is familiar with, may be typical of the city and he writes: "The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, which is to become BBMP, may have to do something about street dog menace at least now." He says that catching stray dogs with the help of unskilled staff in a rickety van is a vain attempt. Everyone knows the dogs smell the van and scurry for cover and reappear once the dog-catchers go away. They are a nuisance during the nights when they forage for food and fight for territorial rights, he adds. To reduce stray dog menace Mr. Narayanan suggests that people should not throw eatables on the roadside; leftovers from parties should be packed in large plastic bags and handed over to BMP garbage collectors; children should be taught not to provoke animals; instead of having one large pound for stray dogs, there can be number of them in each locality and their care can be entrusted to NGOs; all ragpickers should be vaccinated against rabies; dog owners should obtain licence and regularly immunise their pets and the civic authorities should take residents' complaints about dog menace seriously.

S. Seshadri of RPC Layout, Vijayanagar, writes: "The pictures of children bitten by dogs are enough to show that it calls for immediately ridding the city of this menace. It is a misplaced sympathy for stray dogs on the part of animal rights activists. They have not experienced what it is to be bitten by a stray dog."

He says that since garbage bins have become the places around which street dogs roam for food, door-to-door collection of household waste is a better option.

He says that sterilised dogs may not procreate but they bark and bite. Stray dogs are seen in front of eateries, bakeries and butchers' shops.