6,731 street dogs sterilised, 20,000 vaccinated thanks to KMC drive

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation's massive sterilisation and vaccination drive for the street dogs in the city that had kicked off from March last year, will soon come to an end, with more than 6,731 animals being sterilised till date.

"We have conducted two camps in each of the 144 wards in the city for sterilising dogs and have already done it for 6,731 street dogs. Vaccination has been registered to 20,000 dogs," said Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh, who also holds the charge of the Health department of KMC.

The KMC has conducted 269 camps already and the remaining 19 will be completed soon. A senior official of KMC's Health department said that steps have ensured prevention to birth in around 60,000 street dogs. This has been a major stride to prevent proliferation of the dog population in the city and at the same time, prevent rabies. The entire programme has been conducted with fund assistance from the state Animal Husbandry department. The Health department of KMC has also given anti-rabies vaccines to many people in 16 of its health units across the city. "The fear of people regarding rabies has been removed completely," Ghosh reiterated.

KMC has been acting on the advice and help of a number of animal lovers and will continue in this way. It may be mentioned that deaths due to dog bites in the city has been zero since 2013. In 2011, 43 people had died of alleged animal bites. Such a massive sterilisation drive was prompted after it was found that the NGOs working with the state government in the two dog pounds were not at all serious about their jobs. The audit conducted by the ARD department had revealed a lot of irregularities. KMC has decided to continue with its work from March this year as well.