Stray dogs: Spreading awareness, tackling garbage issue is the solution

There has been an unhealthy increase of stray dogs in the city. If you look closely you see many hovering around meat and chicken stalls as well as other stores selling various kinds of food. Most people litter near the shops and this attracts stray dogs to them. People should be aware of this and warned against littering and feeding chicken pieces to the strays.

Garbage dumps are another attractive source of food for these dogs and their pups. So garbage should be managed effectively in a very aggressive manner.
Dogs breed twice in a year and in every breeding cycle 68 pups are added. So one can imagine the progression of increase in the stray dog population. These pups mature in a period of 10 to 12 months and so we need expert surgeons to do skilful surgery. Also only if a dog has rabies does it bite unprovoked .

In my experience I have found that 90 to 95 per cent of dog bites occur without provocation. So it boils down to three main measures, namely effective management of rabies, spreading awareness in BBMP and government schools and tackling the garbage issue. Garbage dumps are breeding areas of stray dogs, and so if they are no longer around dogs will migrate to other places.

(The writer is a former Joint Director, Animal Husbandry)