BANGALORE: The next time you take your dog for a walk outside your home, be sure to clean your dog’s poop from the roadside. Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is planning to introduce a law penalising dog owners if their dogs’ faeces are left on the street.
After receiving complaints from the public that many dog owners, who take their dogs for a walk, do not clean the dog’s faeces even if it is in front of others’ houses, BBMP decided to take this step. According to Parvez Ahmad Piran, BBMP’s Joint Director (Animal Husbandry), in many countries including United States of America, United Kingdom and Singapore, there is a law which levies penalty on dog owners if they do not clean excreta of their pets from the road. “We are planning to enforce a similar law in Bangalore,” he said.
Explaining the proposed law, Dr Piran said that if the law comes into force, dog owners should carry a plastic bag along with a dog scoop to clean its excreta when they take their dogs out for a walk. “Once they clean it, they should fill it in the plastic bag and throw it into a nearby garbage can,” he said. Also, Palike is planning to issue licenses to pets to help the civic agency distinguish pets from stray dogs.
According to officials, other countries provide a designated place where dog owners can clean excreta or dump the poop. “We do not have a similar provision here. Though, Palike is advising public to segregate solid waste and organic waste and then give it to the pourakarmikas, at the end of the day it all goes into the same garbage van. Moreover, giving a designated place to dump dog’s faeces requires money. For now, we cannot follow a similar pattern in Bangalore,” an official said.
Currently, this issue has come to the Standing Committee for Health. “A preliminary discussion was held. A clear picture will emerge only after two or three meetings,” official sources said.