Delhi’s east civic body push for stray adoption: Free vaccines, sterilisations

Dr Mool Chand, who heads the veterinary department in east Delhi, said that an institutionalised community dog adoption programme is being set up.

In a bid to encourage the adoption of community dogs (the correct term for strays) in the trans-Yamuna area, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) will help with free sterilisation, vaccination and registration of the canines. EDMC commissioner Vikas Anand said that the civic body will also run a campaign for the adoption of community dogs.

The civic body also plans to increase the number of animal birth control centres and tenders will soon be issued to find interested NGOs. (HT Archive)

“If anyone wants to adopt a community dog, the municipal corporation will complete vaccination, registration and other formalities,” Anand said, adding that interested people can contact the veterinary department through EDMC helplines.

Dr Mool Chand, who heads the veterinary department in east Delhi, said that an institutionalised community dog adoption programme is being set up.

“We are working with two NGOs who are running sterilisation and vaccination programmes in animal birth control centres. Every colony has community dogs and we are trying to encourage the adoption of community dogs. Free vaccination, sterilisation and registration can be an incentive,” he added. The veterinary director said that people can adopt more than one community dog.

“We hope that this will also help resolve the conflict between people who feed and care for dogs and residents who do not want such dogs in their neighbourhood. The dogs will be officially registered under the adopter’s name and live with them,” he added.

“We have two operational centres in Usmanpur and Ghazipur. Delhi has 16 such animal birth control centres. We are paying NGOs ₹1,000 per dog for sterilisation and vaccination, and ₹900 in case the animal is also picked up and transported by the veterinary department,” an official said.

The government does not have data on how many community dogs roam around on Delhi streets. “The last pan-Delhi survey was conducted by the erstwhile united MCD in 2009, when the number of community dogs was found to be over 560,000. Officials said that the number must have only increased in the following years.

The national Capital has a chequered history of tackling its community dog population. Once the community dog population skyrocketed in the 1990s, corporations started feeding them the neurotoxin poison strychnine, which leads to convulsions and painful death. The practice was stopped in 2001, after which civic bodies tried using chemosterilant Talsur---a drug injected in male dogs’ reproductive parts---but this too proved to be ineffective and painful for the dogs, an official said. Since then, civic bodies have been using operative sterilisation to control the dog population.