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Animal activists accuse Chandigarh MC of botching up dog sterilisations
This, after two incidents of dogs being returned with entrails spilling out were reported in the city
After a second community dog was returned by the municipal corporation with its entrails spilling out of his body, the animal lovers in the city have accused the municipal corporation (MC) of botching up sterilisation surgeries.
A complaint has been made to the police regarding this and the animal activists say they will write to the higher authorities about this.
The sterilisation drive or animal birth control (ABC) programme began on October 1 this year after nearly a year of inactivity. A fresh tender for the project was recently allotted.
Nandini Kakkar who runs the city-based Animal Lovers Association said, “The dog which is around 10 months old was picked up by the MC last week from Sector 16 and returned on Sunday. The surgery to spay the dog had been botched and its intestines were hanging out. We have lodged a complaint with the police and I have taken the dog home with me to get it treated by a private vet.”
City-based animal activist Neeru Saharan said this was the second such incident this month. “Another dog was found with its intestines hanging out in the first week of October. The authorities say that the dogs fight among themselves, but it happens because they are releasing the dogs too soon,” she said, adding that the activists had complained to Maneka Gandhi about this.
Another city-based animal activist Simran Bani added that the authorities were not sterilising the dogs properly: “Last year, five dogs died of similarly botched-up surgeries. The MC is careless when they pick up the dogs. Many times they end up displacing them and we have to look for them.”
District animal welfare officer, who works with the Animal Welfare Board of India, Inder Sandhu, said, “Transparency is needed to ensure such incidents don’t happen again. The sterilisation programme hasn’t been successful, which is why the population of stray dogs has increased in the past few years. Animal volunteers need to be involved for picking up and dropping off the dogs. The age of the dog has to be checked before it is operated upon.”
Police officers of the Maloya police station, where the complaint was made, said they had taken the statements of the doctors and the animal activists involved and had lodged a DDR which had been forwarded to the MC.
MC slaughterhouse in-charge, Dr MS Kamboj, who is also in-charge of the sterilisation drive, said, “When stray dogs are kept in the shelter after surgery, sometimes they fight with each other, which can cause injuries. Our doctors had examined the wounds of the dog in question and it appears that a human has hurt it.”
“We want to work in tandem with animal activists. If any such incident happens, we wish they would inform us and let us take care of the dog,” he added.
