The two-month lockdown period has been a tough time for stray dogs in the city that were deprived of all sources of food from streets. But with the kindness of dog lovers and civic authorities, many of them have been getting just enough food to survive for the past few weeks.
For the city Corporation’s Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme too, this has been a period of lull. Compared to the usual rate of around 400 sterilisations per month, the ABC team has been doing only around 30 to 40 sterilisations per month, as there has been a shortage of staff and dog-catchers.
‘More violent’
A few cases of dog bites have been reported too during this period, as the starving strays have been reported to be more violent than usual.
“Since things are slowly returning to normal, we will be trying to get the ABC programme back on the rails, to get back to the previous rate of sterilisations. Many were not able to reach for work during the lockdown period, hence the pace had slowed down. Even though sterilisations were less, we have been providing food to the stray dogs in several areas during this lockdown period. In the initial period, there certainly was the issue of them not getting food and turning violent. But, a lot of NGOs and volunteers have helped in addressing this issues. Now, with the shops opening up, no dog would be starving,” said the Corporation’s veterinarian Sreerag.
According to the veterinarian, this is a period during which dogs reproduce more and hence are prone to attack strangers approaching the pups.
Parallel to the city Corporation’s ABC initiative, Kudumbashree is also running mobile sterilisation unit.
Over a period of one-and-a-half years from 2018, more than 3,000 dogs were sterilised under both of these initiatives.
