Indian Express 24.11.2010
City can’t keep dogs off roads
Anuradha Mascarenhas Tags : animals, dogs Posted: Wed Nov 24 2010, 06:45 hrs
Pune: With the Pune Municipal Corporation struggling to deal with stray dogs, residents are feeling the pinch. In 2009 as many as 12,539 people were given the anti rabies vaccine at seven dispensaries. In 2008, only 9,645 took the vaccine. The only silver lining is that there were no deaths due to rabies in 2009 as against one each in 2007 and 2008 and three each in 2005 and 2006.Private practitioners point out that they treat cases of dog bites but do not report it to the civic body. At Sassoon General Hospital, 10-12 patients from the district are treated for dog bites.
The Pune Municipal Corporation has given the work of catching dogs and sterilising them to the Blue Cross Society. Health department sources say that garbage on roads often leads to stray dogs hovering for food.
Chairman of the Blue Cross Society Vijay Paranjape said feeding dogs on roads adds to the problem. “There won’t be any street dogs if we have a garbage-free city,” he said.
Dr Dilip Jagtap, Deputy Health Officer, PMC pointed out that with the introduction of intra-dermal injection and decentralisation of the dispensation of ARV at seven dispensaries more people are being registered for the vaccine. There are around 40-50,000 dogs in the city and several measures have been adopted to sterilise and vaccinate them.
According to health officials a total of 3,817 dogs were caught in 2009 as against 3,268 in 2008. In 2007, the number of dogs caught was 3,033 and 3,528 in 2006. Last year seven centres were identified at Bopodi, Hadapsar, Kothrud, Aundh and other areas where dog bites could be treated, in addition to Gadikhana, Jagtap pointed out.
