By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 20 Dec: In view of a significant number of recent cases of dog bites, the Directorate of Urban Development has issued a fresh Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) under which every municipal body in the state will have to form an Animal Birth Control (ABC) Monitoring Committee and also constitute dog squads. The ABC Monitoring Committee and the Dog Squads will be expected to take cognisance of the complaints and information about dog bites. Each information or complaint will be investigated and then the dogs concerned will be picked up by the Dog Squads.
These dogs will then be monitored for seven days. In case, it is found that the dog is ferocious or aggressive in nature then it will not be released back to its original place from where it was picked up. According to the instructions issued by Urban Development Director Nitin Bhadauria, this monitoring committee will hear complaints related to the problem of ferocious stray dogs on priority basis.
Information about the complainant’s name, address, phone number, date, time, place of dog bite will be recorded. If a stray dog bite is confirmed, the dog squad will catch it. After this he will be kept for observation at ABC campus. The dog squad will comprise of a dog van, driver and two dog catchers. After seven days of monitoring, if it is concluded that the stray dog is not aggressive and does not have a biting tendency, then it will be released back to the same place after sterilisation. If needed, he can be monitored for one to three weeks.
The SOP says that in case it becomes clear that the dog actually has aggressive and biting tendencies, then it cannot be released back to its original place. Veterinarians will review such stray dogs every two months. At present, no instructions have been issued to euthanise such dogs and rather it has been emphasised that animal cruelty should be avoided in this process. The directorate also expressed displeasure with all the municipal bodies that this work is not being done seriously though some SOPs had been issued earlier too. Now, a fresh SOP has been issued and the Municipal bodies have been directed to take action as per the latest SOP.
