Don’t move dogs to Yelahanka for birth control, activists tell BBMP

BENGALURU: Animal activists have demanded that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) stop its animal birth control (ABC) programme for stray dogs in Mahadevapura as the centre in the zone was shut a few weeks ago. They have also urged the civic body not to take the dogs to Yelahanka for birth-control surgeries.
According to sources, the civic body had taken up a premises in Mahadevapura for three years to conduct birth-control surgeries on stray dogs and was paying a monthly rent of Rs 60,000.The rental agreement expired a few months ago and the landlord gave a three-month notice period to vacate the place.
The civic agency then began to look for a new place to set up the ABC centre, but failed to find one and decided to conduct birth-control surgeries on stray dogs from Mahadevapura at its Yelahanka ABC centre.
Activists from the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Animal Welfare Volunteers visited the Yelahanka ABC centre recently to check the facilities. They urged the civic body to stop the ABC programme in Mahadevapura zone until a centre is identified. The activists — Arun Prasad Anurag Varma, Deepanwita Sen, Ravi Narayanan and others — alleged there aren’t enough kennels at Yelahanka to hold dogs and the new ones brought in are being put in unclean and unsanitised kennels. The dogs are also not handled properly while being loaded on to vans, they said.
Pending project
KP Ravi Kumar, joint director of BBMP’s animal husbandry department, told TOI the civic agency had allocated a fund of Rs 5 crore to set up ABC centres in Mahadevapura and Bommanahalli zones. But the project is pending for want of suitable locations.
“As the rental period expired a few months ago in Mahadevapura zone, we tried to find an alternative property to set up the ABC centre. But we couldn’t despite multiple efforts. So, we decided to conduct birth-control surgeries in Yelahanka,” said Kumar.
He said earlier, BBMP used to conduct birth-control surgeries for 15-20 dogs daily in Mahadevapura zone when there was an ABC centre. “Now, we have reduced it to 10 as we conduct the surgeries at the ABC centre in Yelahanka, too far from Mahadevapura,” he added. “It takes about two hours to shift dogs from Mahadevapura to Yelahanka. We keep them at the ABC centre for a day before conducting surgery and treat them for three days before releasing them at the place from where they were picked up,” Kumar explained.
“Stopping surgeries is impossible as it may take at least one-and-a-half years to find a place and set up an ABC centre. If we stop the procedure for this long, the population of dogs will rise,” he said.
He added that this arrangement would continue till the BBMP finds a place in order to set up an ABC centre in Mahadevapura.