BENGALURU: The newly-established Bengaluru North City Corporation (BNCC) dog-shelter has been caught in the eye of the storm again. Activists and community feeders within the corporation’s bounds have reported that dogs are allegedly being caught and dumped to the shelter from residential neighbourhoods as well, violating the Supreme Court direction that limits municipal authorities to picking up stray dogs from institutional places – like hospitals and educational campuses – only.
A few days earlier, a report found the shelter to have been dumping the sheltered dogs’ fecal matter into a septic tank, violating several norms set by the Supreme Court, Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). The shelter, which was built at a cost of roughly Rs 1.8 crores, has a maximum occupancy limit of 500 dogs.
“They have been allowing dogs to be picked up from anywhere to be dumped to the shelter, because the agency assigned for the pickup duties is monetarily incentivised to fill the shelter as much as possible. The shelter personnel do not let us ask about the dogs’ origins,” said Sadhana Hegde, the founder of Sahavarthin Animal Welfare Trust.
According to Hegde, welfare workers are being left in the dark about the dogs’ health as well; when volunteers went to check on the dogs’ conditions following the recent spate of heavy downpour in the city, they were allegedly prohibited from inquiring. On Tuesday, workers managed to gain access inside the compound, only to find the dogs severely malnourished, revealing their exoskeletons prominently through their skins.
BNCC’s chief veterinary officer Dr. HK Gangadharaiah dismissed the claims of dogs being picked up from residential neighbourhoods, adding that he was not authorised to admit feeders into the shelter compound and interested feeders should communicate with the assigned agency. “We have not authorised the agency working for us to pick up dogs from any neighbourhood; it is part of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the two parties,” he said.
Dr. Gangadharaiah also said that work was underway at the dog shelter to repair the fencing layout, the concerning quality of which had been pointed out by Hegde and other activists during the construction of the shelter. “Repair work is ongoing at the shelter, due to which we are currently not accepting stray dogs. The work should be finished within a couple of more days,” Dr. Gangadharaiah said.