The owner will have to get the adopted dogs registered with the MC for a fee of Re 1 per dog The owner will have to get the adopted dogs registered with the MC for a fee of Re 1 per dog Facing flak over its inability to bring the stray dog menace in the city under control, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has shortlisted four agencies that will sterilise and vaccinate these dogs for the next three years. In a recent series, Pune Newsline had highlighted the increasing dog menace in the city, which had led to an increase in the number of dog bite cases. The reports had also pointed out that the number of stray dogs in the city was increasing despite the civic body spending a large amount of money in efforts to keep the canine population under control, raising doubts about the procedure of sterilisation of stray dogs. “The PMC has finalised four agencies for the sterilisation of stray dogs in the city, and one of them will also catch the dogs and inject anti-rabies vaccine. The civic body has decided to appoint the agencies for three years instead of the usual one-year contract. This was done to avoid the delay in the appointment of an agency every year due to the tender process. There was no system to take care of the stray dogs in the period between the end of one contract and the beginning of a new one,” said Prakash Wagh, in-charge of the veterinary department, PMC. The PMC, which has allocated Rs 2.66 crore to carry out its plan to check the stray dog menace, is also planning to set up a dog pound with 80 kennels at Baner. The four agencies that will carry out sterilisation of stray dogs are Universal Animal Welfare Society of Beed, Blue Cross Society of India, Animal Welfare Association of Navi Mumbai and Society for the Provision of Cruelty to Animals of Latur. The civic body has also decided to make it mandatory to record sterilisation operations on videos. “These agencies would be paid Rs 560 per dog for sterilisation and an additional Rs 75,000 each for… recording the operations,” said Wagh. The PMC has recommended the appointment of Blue Cross Society of India for catching dogs and injecting anti-rabies vaccine, along with putting an identification mark, such as a belt, collar or chip. The same agency will also carry out a dog census and help develop a mobile app to keep track of stray dogs. Wagh said as many as 11,707 stray dogs were sterilised and vaccinated in 2017-18, and the civic body has now set a target of sterilising and vaccinating 20,000 dogs for 2018-19. For all the latest Pune News, download Indian Express App

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