Angry people, dog lovers corner BMP

Angry people, dog lovers corner BMP
Deccan Herald

As many as 120 strays were picked up and put in dog pounds by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike on day one of its overnight drive against strays. Saturday night’s operation that came in the wake of the mauling of a young girl by a pack of strays on Friday, however, seemed to have worsened the woes of the already beleaguered BMP authorities.

Sunday saw them caught in an unenviable position, as they were at the receiving end both from the animal lovers and people baying for the blood of the strays.

Representatives of Animal Rights Fund - an NGO partner in the BMP’s Animal Birth Control programme noted that ARF is flooded with calls both from panicky citizens billing every stray as mad or rabid and the animal lovers who are questioning the basis on which the strays are being rounded up.

Chandra Layout limits, where the young girl was mauled, is under ARF’s areas of operation.

Interestingly, even as a press conference was being addressed by BMP’s Deputy Commissioner for Health, Manu Baligar, on Sunday afternoon, fellow BMP officers were seen swamped with calls from the staff at the Girinagar dog pound. A group of animal lovers reportedly brought themselves to the pound demanding that the dogs nabbed in the overnight operation be released; the staff at the pound were asking the officers what they should do.

By evening, ARF said that three of the dogs that were nabbed in the overnight drive were released to people who claimed to be their owners.

Elsewhere, people like Udaysimha from Nagarbhavi (adjacent to Chandra Layout) kept hounding the authorities for pets gone missing. “My dog is missing since the morning the incident (girl’s mauling) occurred. It was a beautiful brown coloured mongrel; I had adopted it from Krupa eight months ago, I cannot find it in their pound,” he said. But the people who have borne the brunt of the strays kept to their side of the task.

Among those calling for action were also the Lalbagh authorities. The stray population numbered about 150 in Lalbagh premises are seen to pose a danger to the morning walkers. “The BMP squads keeps a check once in every 15 days, today, we have asked them to be more frequent,” Dr M Jagadish, Deputy Director Lalbagh Botanical Gardens said.

Mr Subbaramaiah too has called the BMP from Prashanthinagar (under Rajarajeshwarinagar CMC), complaining about the stary dogys. Later speaking to Deccan Herald he said “We reside adjacent to ISRO Layout. The stray menace has been on for some years now. Our children cannot go out or come in on their own. We drop them till after the gate when they go out and stand at the gate to receive them when they return. I am told that the BMP needs a recommendation from the CMC to act here.”

Contacts

About 18 squads were involved in Saturday night operation: The NGOs involved and their contact numbers are as below: Karuna: 23411181 / Krupa: 22224541 / ARF: 65733445 / Cupa: 22947302. The BMP may be reached at: 22975566.

DRIVE TO CONTINUE

Bangalore, DHNS: The BMP has said that the drive against strays will continue for a week. But what does it do with the nabbed dogs? Does the dog pounds in the City have space enough to accommodate the ones rounded up during the drive? Many such questions cropped up on Sunday - the morning after the first of the overnight drives.

Apart from the 120 strays nabbed on Saturday night, there are 32 dogs that were nabbed in special day-time drives on Friday and Saturday taking the total to 152.

Allaying the fears of the animal lovers that the nabbed dogs will be euthanised, BMP Deputy Commissioner Health Manu Baligar reiterated that it is not so. In accordance with the rules, these dogs will be tested by the veterinary doctors. The question of whether they should be euthanised or treated and let back to the localities will be addressed later, he said.

But sections of the NGO partners in the ABC programme continued to note there are space constraints in the dog pounds and housing the ones nabbed during the drive will be difficult.

Meanwhile, experts also noted that nabbing the strays is no easy task. Dogs panic and scoot, when they see one of their lot being nabbed. They do not return to the locality for a few days because they have a sense of smell - of the nab squad personnel and the pound vans, it was noted.