‘Don’t cull stray dogs, follow Haryana model’

New Delhi, August 26

Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has criticised the Kerala government’s decision to kill stray dogs. She emphasised that sterilisation, not culling, was the best mode of controlling stray dog population. The decision was taken by the southern state following a fatal attack by stray dogs on a 65-year-old woman on a Kerala beach on August 19. 

“Dogs are scavengers, they come to eat the rats. Unless you clean up the waste, rats increase. Kerala is very heavily urbanised. There is very little control on the waste. Unless you deal with the waste, your rats will come, and with that dogs will come too,” she said.

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“Haryana is doing perfectly with that money. Everywhere, sterilisation has taken off and everything is in place. So why can’t Kerala, which does so many other wonderful things, do this as well,” said Maneka, pointing out that sterilisation worked well in Delhi, bringing down the stray dog population from 5 lakh to 70,000.

“If you sterilise the dogs, they will be happy, they will be gentle. No sterilised dog ever bites. They will also be vaccinated and the problem will go,” the Union Minister said. — TNS