By Pawan Tripathi
Noida, March 5 (IANS) In the past months, videos of dogs from dangerous breeds attacking people are going viral, after which many owners are now trying to get rid of them.
The owners are also getting rid of these dogs by abandoning them at night.
Among them, the maximum number of dogs are German Shepherd and Pitbull breeds.
However, these people do not know that action can be taken against them under the Cruelty to Animals Act.
In the past months, many such videos have gone viral from Noida-Greater Noida, Ghaziabad and other areas, in which dogs can be seen attacking children, elders, delivery boys and other people in lifts, parks and roads.
After these videos went viral, there is anger among the people towards these dangerous dogs.
To stop such incidents, the government and administration are trying to make sure that the concerned department should have complete information about the homes where these dangerous dogs are kept and also about the vaccination of dogs and their registration.
For this, the rules and regulations which were made earlier, are now being strictly followed.
In the past months, Noida’s “House of Stray Animals” NGO has received more than 500 calls from different corners of the country, where dog owners wanted to leave their dangerous breed dogs with the NGO.
The NGO said that it cannot keep so many dogs together because they do not have enough space. That’s why the NGO through its counselling teams is explaining to the people and also saying that if the dogs are properly trained and taken care of, such incidents will not happen.
Sanjay Mohapatra, who started the ‘House of Stray Animals’ NGO, said that when the cases of dog bites were increasing in Delhi-NCR, people used to contact the NGO and him, to leave their dogs.
He said that the NGO used to counsel and explain to the people that there is a need to take care of the dogs properly and not to be afraid of them.
Mohapatra said that the guidelines of the Supreme Court are that you can keep a dog, the most loyal companion of man, with you.
The work of registration of dogs with the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation and Noida Authority has speeded up in the last few months.
The Noida Authority had given time till January 31 to get the dogs registered.
And if anyone keeps his dog or cat as a pet without registration, he/she will be prosecuted and fined.
People are also getting their dogs registered online.
So far, about 5,000 registrations have been done, out of which more than 50 per cent are dogs which are considered to be of dangerous breeds.
There are more than 20,000 dogs in the city.
A total of 70 breeds of dogs are being reared in the city.
Registered dogs include exotic and dangerous breeds like Pitbull, Rottweiler, Boxer, German Shepherd, Great Dane, Bull Mastiff.
Yogendra Sharma, president of all Residents Welfare Associations governing body in Gautam Buddh Nagar, told IANS that the government and the district administration should make the laws on keeping dogs more strict so that people follow them properly. At the same time, units that sterilise stray dogs should be increased.
According to him, at present only two units are doing this work in Noida. Due to this, the work of sterilisation of dogs is not being done properly, which is why apart from domestic pet dogs, more cases of stray dog bites are being reported.
In Noida, about 100 cases of dog bites are reported daily in the district hospital and about 500 dog bite cases are reported in the entire district.
According to Dr B.K. Ojha of the district hospital, the number of people coming to the hospital daily for dog bite injections is around 170 to 200, of which half are new cases.
Day by day, the problem is increasing and now there is anger among the people towards this most faithful companion of man.
–IANS
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