Child dog-bite victim to undergo plastic surgery

Our Correspondent 

Mohali, March 24 

Even as a three-year-old child has to go in for  plastic surgery after a part of his lip was bitten off by a stray dog here, the Municipal Corporation has shown its helplessness in tackling the problem of dog bites  in the city. 

  Paramjit Singh, father of the injured child, Japdeep Singh, said today that  the latter was going from the office room in the Phase II gurdwara towards the dispensary in the complex  around 10.30 pm on Wednesday when a stray dog attacked him on his mouth, injuring him.

 The child was immediately taken to the PGI, Chandigarh, where doctors attending on him said he would have to go in for plastic surgery after 28 days.

Paramjit Singh said stray dogs had also bitten another person in the locality. 

Dr Om Raj Goldie,  SMO and in-charge of the Civil Hospital here, said six or seven persons with dog bites came for treatment to the hospital daily. They were administered the anti-rabies vaccine. 

Joint Commissioner of the corporation Avneet Kaur said the civic body could only go in for the sterilising of stray dogs and this was already  being done. Efforts would be made to increase the number of sterilisations.

She said according to the rules, stray dogs could not be shifted from their original location of stay. The dogs were caught for sterilisation purposes and after the operation were left at the place from where they were originally caught. She said in the past two years, about 1,200 dogs were sterilised. 

 Asked whether the number of stray dogs had gone up over the past year or so, the Joint Commissioner said no fresh survey had been carried out in this regard  in Mohali city.