Stray dog menace irks netizens in Millennium city

Cuttack, Dec 21:  The netizens of the Millenium city have resented the alarming rise in stray dog population.

Often the residents, including children, are falling victim to dog bite while commuting on city roads.

       The non execution of the dog sterilization drive by Cuttack Municipal Corporation(CMC) since 2014 despite State Government providing all necessary infrastructures, including two dog sterilisation centers, a vehicle for carrying dogs and an annual fund amounting Rs 15 lakh to the civic body under Animal Birth Control(ABC) programme has resulted in the rising number of stray dogs.

        Beside biting people, the movement of stray dogs on the city roads has also caused to rise in road accidents.

 The garbage, wastes and often the carcasses of animals are being dumped on the public roads and place openly which woos stray dogs to the spot where they indulge in quarrelling with each other and get ferocious. The angry mood of the stray dogs is then posing threat to human lives.

Though there is also no official report on canine population count, non-official sources put its population to be over 60,000.

“We had invited tender two/three times for counting canine population in the city but no one participated,” said CMC officials.

City Health Officer Dr. Umesh Panigrahi,  however, informed that considering the inconvenience arising due stray canine population, the civic body has started implementing its own animal birth control-cum-anti rabies vaccination (ABC and ARV) programme though a veterinary surgeon since September 22 this year.

Around 250 dogs so far have been sterilized during the last three months, he added.