One dog put down every eight seconds

Monday . February 22, 2010 . Front Page

Matunga’s dog sterilization centre is in bad shape. BMC has announced many plans to get rid of the stray maniac but no major steps have been taken so far to provide right option towards the same. Sterilization is a proven way to reduce the numbers of stray animals who get into trash, defecate in neighborhoods, and bite or attack people and pets. However, so many dogs in the overcrowded city shelters or sit-in cages at overflowing rescues centres are endlessly awaiting to be adopted.

Pets can reproduce sooner than you think. Animal activist Sunish Kunju said, “People are the problem not the animals. About one dog every eight seconds - almost 4 million - are put down in our country shelters each year.” The animals in these shelters are not always mongrels from the streets. Many offspring of family pets, including purebreds abandoned on the streets also find their way to the shelters.

“Stray dog are dumped in animal van in a very cruel state, but enough good homes couldn’t be found. Whatever the reasons, the results are the same - unwanted animals end up in shelters and rescues and on the streets all over our communities. The only 100 percent effective method of birth control for dogs has failed miserably because of bad state of sterilization centers in city,” added Kunju. The treatment meted to these dogs by the sterilization centres’ staff is hardly decent.

Sterilization centre in Mumbai
There are very few sterilization centers in the city and even fewer are in any decent functional condition. The shortage of centres has led to a major flaw in the way these centres nab dogs. The BMC has not allotted the sterilization centre an area around itself. The problems multiply themselves as a van from Andheri has to come to Mulund to pick up stray dogs and to maximize their trip, they stuff the dogs inside. The stray dogs are caught using a net and dumped in the can along with the same net. Kunju suggest that the centres should starts working on the area around it and then gradually it can expand.

The Monitoring Department
It consists of one person from the BMC and one from the NGO who is involved in the sterilization centres. There are many NGOs who are currently working in the welfare street animal but are not involved in the sterilization centre. Kunju suggests that if members of this kind of NGOs are made members of the monitoring department, the person would keep a good check over the flaws. In fact there are many private groups which use the BMC logo on their identity cards and people come under the impression that “BMC kutto ko leke gayi hai.”

The entire system of keeping the dog population under control in the city has failed owing to the lack of will of the BMC. There are flaws from step one. The silver lining to this dark cloud is that the step the BMC has to take are well chalked out, they only have to take the initiative.