Times of India: Ahmedabad: Monday, March 10,
2014.
In what can
be called a victory for animal lovers and NGOs, from next month, stray dogs in
the city will no more be captured by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's
'Tail Depot' department. The AMC has officially assigned the city-based animal
agency, Goal Foundation, the task of attending to people's complaints about
dogs that currently come to its Tail Depot department.
The new
initiative comes in the wake of TOI reporting last month on an RTI query filed
by activist Pankaj Buch regarding dogs captured by the civic body. In its
reply, the AMC had admitted that 1,84,542 dogs had been caught and dumped on
the outskirts of the city between 2003 and 2012.
"The
method of capturing and releasing stray dogs is in gross violation of the
provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act-1960. The central
government has enacted a law that says stray dogs will be captured only for the
purpose of sterilization. They are to be released in the same area from which
they were captured," Buch said.
Goal
Foundation will initially take online complaints. "We will begin work
zone-wise. We have five vans and 10 employees for the job. When we receive a
complaint about an aggressive dog, we will capture the animal, neuter it and
release it back in the same area. If people protest, we will tell them it's a
Supreme Court order that we have to follow. No dog can be captured only to be
dumped," said Bhavik Shah, Goal Foundation.
Shah claimed
that the new initiative will have a positive impact on the dog sterilization
programme as well. "When dogs were captured from one zone and dumped in
another, the agencies had trouble keeping track of dogs in their zones. Also,
the canine population kept increasing. We will now neuter the dogs about which
we receive complaints. This will not only allow easy tracking of dogs but also
reduce their number," Shah said.
According to
the AMC, the Tail Depot gets an average of 70 calls each day. "People have
various complaints - from dogs howling at night to chasing bikes. We used to
capture a few from each area and dump them on the outskirts," said an AMC
official. Sources said that these dogs, which were brought to the Pirana
landfill sites from different areas of the city, have not adapted to the new
place. They fight each other, starve and die of disease or accidents.
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