Registration of pet dog now mandatory in Gurugram

Gurugram: Gurugram has become the third city in the country after Mumbai and Bengaluru where it has become mandatory to register your pet dog with the municipal corporation. There have already been 12 licenses that have already been given to the owners in the city. The initial fee for the registration will be Rs 500. The need for registration of dogs has been felt in the city as there was a large number of cases of dog bites that were reported from the city. Most of the dog bite cases were domesticated dogs.

There were also cases of dogs getting lost. The registration process is to ensure that not only will the dogs be vaccinated but the care of the dog will be the responsibility of the owner failing which he will be liable to pay the fine.

Increase in cases of dog bite continues to be a major challenge in Gurugram. According to the RTI report in 2017, there were 7113 cases of dog bites that were registered in Gurugram. These were 1372 cases more than what was registered in 2016 which was at 5,741.

Complaints of attack on stray animals on residents are now being increasingly reported from private residential colonies in the city like DLF township, Sushant Lok, South City, Valley View, and several HUDA sectors.

With aggressive dogs posing a major security issue in the neighborhood, residents complain of how lack of action by MCG is resulting them choosing the time for stepping out of their homes.

"The problem of stray dogs is a very big problem in our neighborhood. During night always there is a fight between the pack of dogs in our area. Not only have the dogs in the area become more aggressive and ferocious they in a way have become unsafe for those who they do not identify," said Ritika Sahni, a resident of DLF Phase -1.