Vijayawada: The Supreme Court’s recent order on stray dogs has once again brought the failure and callous attitude of civic bodies in handling the sensitive issue to the fore. Though the central govt notified the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, which mandates a humane approach to manage stray dog population by implementing capture-neuter-vaccinate-release (CNVR) programs with the assistance of local authorities, private individuals, and animal welfare organizations, hardly any civic body in the state follows the rules properly.During the YSRCP regime, the then animal husbandry director had issued a order restricting local bodies from taking up ABC activities on their own. He wanted only empanelled agencies to take up ABC activities, which ignored local animal welfare NGOs in the animal welfare board. Later, the govt constituted a state-level animal birth control implementation and monitoring committee, which had the secretaries of municipal administration and urban development, panchayat raj and rural development, health and other depts as members. The committee also included two non-official subject experts. “Many of ABCs were located near dumping yards under unhygienic conditions. This is completely against the rules. I was on the committee till last year, but no meetings were held. Upon the intervention of the high court, a new committee has been constituted without any subject expert. It conducted only one meeting in the last one year just to comply with the HC’s orders. There does not seem to be any seriousness by the administration on the issue,” rued Tejovanth Anupoju from the Help for Animals Society, an NGO that looks after animal welfare, including stray dogs.He said there is a clear need to manage street dog population efficiently to promote human and animal health and welfare, without causing suffering for anyone. He suggested bite prevention programs for the public, especially children, to guide them on how to interact with animals and what to do when approached by stray dogs, particularly those that show signs of fear and/or aggression as dogs do not generally bite unless provoked.
