Dog-catching campaign kicked off in city

Ludhiana: To curb stray dog menace in the city, the civic authorities have started ward-wise dog-catching campaigns, with two vans being deployed for the same.
The move is aimed at increasing the number of surgical procedures being done in a day so that sterilization of stray dogs could be completed as soon as possible. One van is being deployed for the outer wards while one is catering to the inner wards of the city. Meanwhile, the capacity of dog kennels is being doubled as construction work is to commence shortly.
Recently, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh had directed the chief secretary to explore the possibilities of support from the central government to eradicate the stray dog problem. He had also asked the chief secretary to regularly monitor the progress of implementation and achievement of specific targets under the action plan devised for the stray dog issue. In this meeting, the animal husbandry principal secretary had also apprised the CM of dog bite cases attributed to strays. According to him, 1.12 lakh cases of dog bites were reported in 2017 and 1.13 lakh in 2018 across the state, of which 13,185 and 15,324, respectively, were reported in Ludhiana alone.
Senior veterinary officer YP Singh said earlier the MC was catching dogs either based on complaints from specific areas or by randomly choosing wards, but, it was not fulfilling the purpose. He said from Tuesday onwards, MC has started catching dogs ward-wise and two vans have been deployed for the job. “In the evening, random complaints will be addressed as our target is to sterilise 40-50 dogs daily as the private company handling this project has increased the number of doctors performing the procedure,” he added.
Meanwhile, residents said the stray dog menace can be resolved if the pace of sterilisation is increased. “In the past one month, there have been so many cases of dog bites in the city that people are scared to go out of their homes. The population of dogs will be controlled only when the sterilization programme will run at a fast pace,” said Aman Malhotra, a resident of Durgapuri.
The dramatic increase in the number of dog bite cases had forced the civic authorities to bring dog lovers and victims of stray dogs on one platform for debate. While dog lovers blamed the cruel attitude of residents towards stray dogs, dog bite victims said dogs had become violent in the summer season and they were biting people like anything.