BENGALURU: An eight-year-old girl and her father were attacked by a street dog at Lakshmidevi Nagar in BBMP limits on Sunday night. According to initial reports from the BBMP, when the child, Nurin Falak, was out with her father Fakruddin late evening, the dog chased and attacked her. When her father rushed to help her, even he was bit by the dog. He has received an anti-rabies injection.
According to Manjunath Shinde, Assistant Director, BBMP Animal Husbandry Department, the child has sustained injuries for which “she has received stitches on her face and neck region and is out of danger. We will reimburse the treatment cost and also give Rs 10,000 as compensation.”
“The dog is fed by house owners in the surrounding area, but we cannot find the dog. Fearing that the dog would be caught, the owners have left it somewhere. We do not know if the dog was sterilised and vaccinated,” said a senior official.
Animal welfare activists blamed the failure of Animal Birth Control programme by BBMP for the incident. Activist Sujaya Jagadish said she had been to the RR Nagar Animal Birth Control Centre and found it was not running at its full capacity.
“The centre is built of footpaths and does not have a spacious kennel. Due to shortage of staff, space and finances, the NGOs are unable to pick dogs for surgery, and so, therer is an increase in number of street dog attacks,” she said. Activists said animal birth control process should be a continuous process.