Stray dog menace: MAUD Special CS chairs meet with GHMC, CDMA officials 

Municipal authorities were directed to intensify Animal Birth Control operations and Anti Rabies Vaccinations to address the issues related to dog bites with help of public participation

Hyderabad: Following the recent death of a four-year-old boy after he was attacked by a pack of stray dogs in Amberbet, the municipal authorities were directed to intensify the Animal Birth Control operations and Anti Rabies Vaccinations (ABC & ARV) and address the issues related to dog bites with the help of public participation.

The Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) Special Chief Secretary, Arvind Kumar chaired a meeting with senior officials from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration (CDMA), here on Wednesday.

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The officials were asked to engage with Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and schools and brief the children about do’s and don’ts related to stray dogs. They were instructed to identify areas with dense stray dog populations and initiate appropriate measures.

“Besides briefing school children about precautionary measures, awareness camps will be held with the help of resident welfare associations, slum level federations and self-help groups,” said a GHMC official.

Action would be initiated against restaurants and other establishments that throw food outside their premises and given the summer, facilities to provide drinking water to the street dogs would also be made.

To curb the dog bite incidents, the GHMC has been working on ABC & ARV for street dogs including post-operative care of the sterilised canine. The city is estimated to have a canine population of 5.7 lakh of which over 4.01 lakh have been sterilised by the civic body in association with five animal welfare organisations in a systematic geographic approach.

After the sterilisation and anti-rabies vaccination followed by rehabilitation for five days, the dogs are released in the same locality from where they are picked. To ensure transparency during this entire process, the GHMC has developed an exclusive app where all details including photographs of the street dogs vaccinated and sterilised are uploaded.