HSI to sterilise street dogs in 5 dists

Tribune News Service

Fatehabad, November 29

Work has started to vaccinate 5.15 lakh street dogs and sterilise 70-75 per cent of them in Fatehabad, Sirsa, Bhiwani, Hisar and Jind.

A team of veterinarians and volunteers from Humane Society International (HSI), a global animal protection group given this task under the National Rabies Control Programme as a pilot project, began its work this week.

“We started our work in Fatehabad on November 20 but the first three or four days were lost in making preparations. We have so far sterilised 33 dogs and immunised many more,” said Shrikant Verma, HSI Project Coordinator here.

“Before this, we started working in Bhiwani in March and in Hisar in August,” he added.

Three veterinary surgeons and five animal welfare officers are working under Joy Lee, a senior programme manager of the HSI for the Dog Population Management (DPM) component, while 19 animal welfare officers are working under Matt Becham, a British, for the mass dog caccination (MDV) component of the programme at their bases in Bhodia Khera and Khariti Khera villages of the district, respectively.

“We catch dogs in a humane manner as 70 per cent of the street dogs are friendly. For others, we use nets,” Verma said.

It is the beginning and once things become smoother, they will sterilise 400 dogs a week, he added.

Navamita Mukherjee, an HSI spokesperson, said in a census conducted during June–October, 2014, a street dog population of 5,15,360 was found in the five districts.

The district-wise population was Fatehabad (85,820), Hisar (1,13,929), Sirsa (97,873), Bhiwani (1,28,927) and Jind (88,811).

She said the project would soon be launched in Jind and Sirsa and will be completed by March, 2017.

India’s first pilot project under the National Rabies Control Programme was launched in Haryana in March this year to provide a more humane and sustainable solution in managing street dog issues.

The project addressed the management of street dogs through mass awareness, community engagement, humane catching of street dogs, effective rabies diagnosis and improving dog bite management.

The DPM programme entailed dog census, mass sterilisation and mass immunization of street and pet dogs to cover at least 70 per cent of their population, she added.