E-Paper
Hospital for stray dogs coming up in Chandigarh
Besides sterilisation and vaccination of unclaimed dogs, the facility coming up on a two-acre plot at Raipur Kalan will also tend to injured canines before leaving them at the same place from where they were picked
A state-of-the-art dedicated hospital and laboratory for stray dogs will become operational within a month at Raipur Kalan village in Chandigarh.
The new facility, which is part of the Animal Birth Control Centre, is coming up on a two-acre plot. It will also have a dog pound to house around 500 stray dogs and sterilise about 1,000 dogs.
Along with sterilisation of unclaimed dogs at the centre, their vaccination will also be done. For this, a special team will be appointed by the MC.
The hospital will also tend to injured dogs. These dogs will be kept under the supervision of the team for treatment, and will be later returned to the same place from where they were picked.
The MC has invited firms to start the sterilisation programme. A tender has been floated after the MC General House approved it in its February meeting.
“A 21-day period has been given for the tender to be filled. After the tender is allotted, the centre will start. The agency will have to sterilise 150 dogs per month,” said an MC official connected with the project.
If it does not meet this target, then a penalty will be charged at ₹100 per dog and it will be deducted from the monthly bill of the agency. The work will be allotted for one year.
Currently, sterilisation is going on at the centre in Sector 38. In the latest MC drive started in September last year, around 2,500 dogs have been sterilised so far.
The city has been witnessing a rapid increase in the stray dog population and the number of dog bite cases has also gone up by 35% in the last five years, according to the MC records.
According to the latest animal census, conducted by the UT animal husbandry and fisheries department, the number of stray dogs reached 12,900 in 2019, up from 7,847 in the last census conducted in 2012. The city has anti-rabies clinics in Sector 19 and Sector 38, where around 30 to 35 dog bite cases are being reported daily.
