Stray dog vax drive ends before deadline

Bhubaneswar: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday claimed to have completed mass vaccination of stray dogs with over 35,000 dogs having received the anti-rabies vaccine in the 70-day-long intensive drive.

“The drive that had started on March 30 against a deadline of 90 days, was completed before the deadline in 70 days,” said Dr Debi Prasad Kund, in-charge of BMC’s animal birth control (ABC) programme.

“Of a total dog population of 52,000 (including 5,000 puppies), 35,000-40,000 were targeted to be vaccinated because the global standard is 70-75% of the total population can be caught and vaccinated. In a month’s time, we covered 35% area of 67 total wards of the city and in another 40 days, we covered the rest 65%. Dogs vaccinated prior to the ongoing special drive were easily identifiable because of the ear-tagging and they were not counted in the current vaccination report,” said Kund.