Got a pet dog? Then, you better pay up Rs.50 and take a licence. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has decided to take action against people keeping pets without licence.
GHMC Commissioner and Special Officer B.Janardhan Reddy, who held a review meeting with veterinary wing on measures being taken to check the stray dog menace in the city, asked officials to implement provisions related to owners taking licence for their pet dogs.
The GHMC has the authority to take away pet dogs that do not have the prescribed licence, he said.
The city has around 4 lakh strays and the civic body was planning to take the services of government veterinary doctors in controlling the stray dog menace. For the last two years, the veterinary wing has been availing the services of 25 private veterinary doctors and paying Rs.40 per dog to carry out sterilisation of 1.51 lakh stray dogs, he said.
Now, the GHMC has decided to take the assistance of animal husbandry department for birth control measures among the dogs and pass an amount Rs.100 towards sterilisation and anti-rabies vaccination to the government veterinary hospitals.
A fleet of 17 vehicles and 102 staff members were engaged in the task of catching dogs from the city streets, shift them for sterilisation and vaccination and leaving them back in the same locality after a notch in the ears. The GHMC has spent an amount of Rs.320 per each dog for the operation as against Rs.920 spent in Mumbai and Rs.750 in New Delhi, Dr. Janardhan Reddy said.
There has been no case of rabies reported in the city for the last two years and around 61,749 dog bite cases reported in the year 2015-16 so far.
