Palike holds pets responsible for rise in stray dogs

As culling of dogs is no longer resorted to by the BBMP owing to protests by animal lovers and animal rights groups, it adopted the Animal Birth Control programme to contain the dog menace.

Even though, the Palike has spent a whopping Rs 10 crore in the past eight years for dog sterilisation programme, the stray dog population has increased to two lakh. If the population of the pet dogs is taken into account the total dog population in the City can be put at 3.5 lakh.

The Palike has now found out that pet dogs have significantly contributed to rise in the population of stray dogs. Hence, it has now shifted its focus on sterilisation of pet dogs. A review meeting on the issue was chaired by Mayor S K Nataraj on Monday. At the meeting the Palike decided that it would fix the number of pet dogs to be possessed and would also collect a licence fee from pet owners. Moreover, owners who have pet dogs that are not sterilised have to pay three times more licence fee. However, the licence fee has not yet been fixed, said a BBMP official.