BMC hospitals are known for having stray cats in and around but the number of cats has been concerning the patients’ relatives quiet lately as they share their beds with cats. In order to fix this problem, BMC’s health department had decided to sterilize cats from 1st April and simply due to the Lok Sabha Elections, it has been delayed.
If the sterilization of cats is done now it would be a violation under the code of conduct. Thus, the cats will be sterilized after the Lok Sabha Elections. But this is not the first time that the BMC Health department has attempted to sterilize cats, they attempted to do so in June 2018 as well when dogs were sterilized by the BMC, but they couldn’t sterilize the cats.
Although, BMC has done its homework when it comes to their cat sterilization project. They have spoken to the Animal Welfare Board and a rate card has been provided too. The cost of sterilizing female cats would be Rs 600 and Rs 800 would be the cost of sterilizing male cats. In a conversation with the Mid-Day, Dr Padamaja Keskar, executive director of BMC’s health department said, “According to the new proposal, we are going to spend around Rs 1 crore for the sterilization. We would provide the land for it too.”
Dr Yogesh Shetye, who is handling the project told the Mid-Day that, “Cats breed twice a year and give birth to two to three kittens at a time. We have received several complaints from people about overcrowding of cats [in hospitals] so we decided to sterilize the cats. But due to the code of conduct, it has been put on hold.”
The complete project would cost Rs 1 crore to BMC Health Department and they are nothing but keen on beginning with the procedure.