BANGALORE: Coming academic year, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) animal husbandry department will hold seminars on Animal Birth Control (ABC) for BBMP school’s children to educate them on dog bite menace and the precautionary measures to be taken.
The Joint Director to Animal Husbandry Dr Parvez Ahmed Piran expressed his helplessness over the unhealthy development of increased stray dog menace last year and said that the department spends crores of rupees in ABC but people cooperation in implementation is equally important. “When our dog catching vehicle approaches the area from were the complaint has come, few owners and local people chase the dogs, resulting the squad to return empty hand,” said Piran.
“The animal husbandry department in BBMP had become like a punching bag; any stray incident was blown out of proportion by few sections of the media. Hence we want to start an educative value from the grassroot level,” he added. The department will start seminars in BBMP schools and give tips on the ABC program, which includes lessons on keeping the area clean and to take the pets to BBMP veterinary hospitals to get the dogs vaccinated and sterilised.
The department has spend Rs 3.42 lakh on sterilisation of 70,000 dogs and vaccinated 1,16,000 stray dogs in October 2011. BBMP plans to extend sterilisation to one lakh plus dogs.
Partial success of ABC Programme
A report by the animal husbandry department says that in 2003-2004 it registered 32,000 dog bites and after adopting ABC measures, the dog bites numbered 24,120 in 2010-2011. The deaths due to rabid dog bite were reported to 20 in 2001-2002, and it has come down to one in 2010- 2011. Corporation has appealed to pet owners to get their pets vaccinated at an early stage.