Agency must sterilise 300 more stray dogs each month

Ludhiana: For sterilising enough stray dogs to meet the animal birth control programme’s monthly target, the civic body had to issue a warning to the contractor. The failure to speed up the operations will invite a progressive penalty.
Every month, the contractor must sterilise at least 1,800 stray dogs but is able to cover only 1,500 canines in that period. The muncipal corporations is under pressure to complete this project by the end of March 2023, for which it must meet the monthly targets. This animal birth control programme started in 2015 and despite more than 45,000 dogs sterilisations, the programme officials still have no data on how many more remain, since no such survey was ever conducted.
The officials claimed that not a single city had achieved 100% success rate. With summer, the number of dogbite cases have increased. This is the third agency that the MC has hired for stray dog sterilisation, yet the public complaints have not ended. Packs of street dogs continue to attack cyclists and pedestrians.
The civic officials claimed that the programme sure had a weak start but now it had reached a pace where it can hope to meet the monthly target. “Rest assured, the public will see a difference,” said an official. Confirming the increase in pace, senior veterinary officer Dr Harbans Singh Dhalla said: “I have issued a stern warning to the contractor concerned, telling the agency to catch more dogs daily to be able to reach the figure of 1,800 in a month. It is laid out clearly in the agreement sighed with the agency. The fine for missing the first target is Rs 5,000, which increases progressively.
Municipal commissioner Shena Aggarwal on Tuesday had a review meeting with the veterinary officials. Impressed by the proposal to create a dog park, she asked the officials to speed up the project, for the city’s pet lovers will also like the concept. The dog part is where people will be able to walk their pets and feed stray animals to avoid doing it on the streets.