BBMP plans clipping badge to keep track of strays

Bengaluru: To distinguish between the sterilized and unsterilized street dogs, the BBMP is considering clipping badge to their ears.

The direction was issued by Mayor Sampath Raj during a review meeting held on Tuesday. There were numerous complaints from the residents of Rajarajeshwari Nagar about the street dog menace.

The mayor checked with the Animal Husbandry officials and it was learnt that there was a rise in the number of street dogs across the city. The reason cited was flaws in sterilization drives.

The mayor said that there are complaints that after sterilization, the street dogs are kept under observation for few days and then released to different wards. This results in an increase in the canines in a particular ward and the newly introduced dogs get attacked by other strays and they also attack humans.

"In order to avoid this, when the dogs are picked up from a ward, an entry will be made and when they are being released, a badge will be clipped with the ward number and it will be easy for them to identify which dog belongs to what ward and will be released accordingly," he said.
 

“The ideas were discussed with the officials from the BBMP’s animal husbandry department and veterinary doctors. It will take few months to implement as more discussions will have to take place with the animal rights activists and seek their suggestion too. Once this is done, we will see how it can be implemented,” the Mayor added.

Meanwhile, a few people running animal shelter home said that the stray dog population in the city was approximately 5-6 lakhs and the reason for increase is BBMP’s irregular sterilization drives.

When asked Tony Freer, Founder and Trustee of Haven Animal Welfare Trust, about clipping badge for the street dogs, he said, “It is a good move and should be implemented at the earliest. The ward number on the badge will make it easy to know if the dog has been sterilized or not and which ward it belongs to. The BBMP is currently clipping the tip of the ears of the dogs for identification purpose, but it is not helping much.”

“Sometimes, the dogs are released into different wards and they create a ruckus and start attacking people and run around as the new habitat makes them panicky. If they are released into the same place from where they were picked up, they get a sense of belonging and these badges with ward number will help to release them in the same wards,” added Freer.