MUMBAI, June 2: There is absolutely no check on the city's 3 lakh stray dogs now. A sterilisation drive that was launched four years back after some animal rights' organisations objected to electrocution of dogs, has been suspended and there is no move to replace it with another programme. In fact, the health department has absolutely no idea what an alternative could be.The deputy executive health officer, S A Lalchandani, today admitted that the sterilisation programme had been a complete failure. He said while the stray dog population was increasing at the rate of 25,000 dogs per annum, the sterilisation drive being run by some NGOs could cover only 6,000 dogs in a year. Stopping short of directly blaming the NGOs for the failure, Lalchandani said the dogs were being castrated in the name of sterilisation.This also slowed down the drive, for following castration a ``dog has to be fed and cared for about 10 days,'' he said. With the suspension of the sterilisation programme, BMC efforts to containthe canine population have come a full circle. Till January 1994 the BMC was electrocuting stray dogs - some 40,000 every year. That was before the dog lovers' organisations took the government to court accusing it of cruelty to animals. After the court ordered the government to explore alternative methods of containing dogs' population, five dog lovers' associations came forward with a proposal to sterilise dogs. Their proposal was accepted and the sterilisations began in what was a fully subsidised operation - the Animal Welfare Board of India and the BMC was footing the bill for every dog's sterilisation. But obviously, the effort was inadequate. For, complaints of dog bites kept on rising steadily. While the number of complaints of dog bites in the year 1993 was 3,198, now it has risen to over 5,010.And now that the drive has been suspended, what next? The BMC too is asking the same question. It has called upon the animal welfare associations to come forward and suggest solution. The present stray dogpopulation in the city according to the corporation statistics is 3 lakh and if something was not done fast, the complaints of dog bites would only rise. One option could be to have the health department take up the sterilisation drive.The Health Department has written to the council's health member Sardar Tara Singh to create a new veterinary public health department to tackle the menace of stray animals.
