'Ruff' times? BBMP puts dog sterilisation on a leash

Floats tenders for five-in-one combined vaccines that will cover 1.8 lakh strays.

Bengaluru: After the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) temporarily shut down three of their eight animal birth control (ABC) centres in the city, the sterilisation of street dogs has rolled to a halt, placing their health and population status in a limbo.

The centres are tasked with the job of capturing street dogs, sterilising and vaccinating them before releasing them back into their areas to reduce their breeding and the chances of disease spreading. 

The ABC program has currently stopped in three zones – R R Nagar, Yelahanka and Mahadevapura – due to the BBMP suspending the contract of ASRA, an NGO that was running the program. However, the anti-rabies vaccination in these zones is still being carried out by the same agency.

This came after a botched sterilisation operation conducted by the agency led to the death of a street dog in Yelahanka. However, an expert committee report with Vikas Suralkar, BBMP Special Commissioner (Health and Animal Husbandry), noted that the agency could not be held at fault.

“ASRA’s contract was temporarily suspended and we got a detailed enquiry done. Now, that report has also come. Meanwhile, we called for tenders. As it was not conclusively proven that they were responsible, hence, we qualified them on the technical grounds and the file is pending before the chief commissioner,” he said.

He was also quick to note that only two of the five agencies who applied when tenders were called had the ABC project recognition from the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI).

Dr K P Ravi Kumar, Joint Director, animal husbandry, noted that even before this happened, the Mahadevapura ABC centre was shut down after its three-year lease ended and the owner of the building sold it. Therefore, all ABC and vaccination of the dogs in the Mahadevapura zone was conducted in Yelahanka’s ABC centre. The BBMP has not been successful in getting another site in over a year now.

Improvements made

Vikas admitted that there is a lot the department has to do, including increasing the number of necessary surgeries to match the capacity of the facilities. “There is no point in setting up new centres. Rather than expansion, we want to improve the capacity of existing ones,” he said.

Activists are pushing for the BBMP to allow more reliable NGOs who have the AWBI recognition and have also received an ABC project recognition by AWBI to run an ABC centre.

Animal rights activist Sujaya Jagadish, who also runs her own NGO called Save Our Animals Charitable Trust (SOACT), noted that infrastructure should be improved. “We need new ABC centres in Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli, R R Nagar. The West and South zones are operating in a single centre. Right now, only Dasarahalli, Chamrajpet, Yelahanka are the only centres with adequate infrastructure,” she said.

They should establish a monitoring system involving the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and enable transparency in all the procedures involved, she added. Ellango V K, animal rights activist, highlighted that the BBMP and the NGOs must focus on sanitising the nets, kennels and the vehicles, which is not happening. “The catchers are not para-vets; they have to use gloves, they cannot use bare hands,” he said.

He suggested the BBMP use the space below flyovers for the ABC and vaccination program, to set up a temporary or permanent centre, similar to how waste segregation centres function.