New Town gets integrated pet creche, clinic

KOLKATA: An integrated complex for pet dogs, housing a creche, a clinic, a sterilization and vaccination unit, and even a cemetery, was inaugurated in New Town on Friday.

This facility at Action Area III, to be run by state agency NKDA, came as a welcome news to residents of New Town, Salt Lake and adjoining areas, who, so far, did not have any nearby place, where they could put their pets up while leaving for a vacation. The complex will have rooms to accommodate 10 dogs at a time. Also, the owners would have to travel far to find a cemetery. “We really needed a pet creche in the vicinity. For the lack of such a facility, families, who own dogs, cannot travel as they don’t known whom to leave their pets with. The integrated creche-cum-clinic and cemetery will immensely benefit the residents of not only New Town and Salt Lake but also adjoining areas,” said Bidhannagar Kennel Club president Tapas Sengupta. “We also needed aproper pet burial ground nearby.”

Going by the rule chalked out by NKDA, it will take Rs 750 a day to keep a large dog at the creche and Rs 500 a day for a small breed. A pet owner will also have to pay a security deposit of Rs 10,000 to keep his/her dog at the creche under the supervision of trained staff. The payments will have to be made in advance and the pet owner will have to submit a doctor’s certificate, mentioning the dog does not have any infectious disease, along with a copy of its last vaccination papers. The regular medicines that the dog took would have to be left at the creche for the period of its stay as the facility would provide only emergency medicines, said an official. He added that no outside food would be allowed there and the owner would have to mention the dog’s food habit.