Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh is yet to do sterilisation and vaccination of more than one lakh stray dogs across the state.
The state government had taken up the animal birth control and anti-rabies vaccination programme on June 1, 2024. It identified 2.08 lakh stray dogs for sterilization and 2 lakh stray dogs for vaccination. However, it could sterilize 1.03 lakh of these dogs and vaccinate 1.04 lakh of them till now.
In 2019, a stray dogs population census was carried out, listing over two lakh of them. Again, in 2024, a similar exercise was conducted.
The number of stray dog bites reported in the state were: 1,91,998 in 2022; 2,11,918 in 2023; 2,44,914 in 2024 and 59,725 from January to March this year.
The AP government has roped in four NGOs to take up the ACB and ARV in 24 urban local bodies. A similar programme is also being taken up at district, mandal and gram panchayat levels.
However, dog lovers are insisting on strict norms for ABC and ARV and involving the NGOs in the campaign.
A complaint is that there was a lack of proper support from the urban local bodies in arranging labs, shelters, dog catchers and other support.
The ongoing programme has been severely affected by all these. This, in turn, resulted in a proliferation of the stray dog population across the state.
Each breedable female stray dog can conceive and give birth twice a year to a minimum of six to eight puppies. Four to six of them survive, grow into adults, establishing their own territories and start barking at or attacking strangers in the streets.
This is causing a big problem to residents and others.
Animal husbandry director Damodar Naidu said, “We will implement the Supreme Court direction onstray dog population. But, there should be cooperation from dog lovers and NGOs to sterilize and vaccinate them. Rules are meant to make the task easy, not to complicate matters. There are financial constraints and other practical difficulties for the local bodies to deal with stray dogs.”
There are calls to dog lovers to arrange shelters for stray dogs, feed them and take care of them instead of just routinely feeding them in public places and causing their population to grow.
Guntur-based animal welfare volunteer Jagu Suresh said, “We find a lot of violation of norms vis-a-vis sterilization and vaccination of stray dogs in the local municipality, with civic officials failing to monitor things properly.”
SC order: Meanwhile, the Supreme Court in its modified order on Friday issued directions to pick up stray dogs, sterilise, deworm, vaccinate and release them back to their places of origin. It ruled that there be no relocation for those that are infected with rabies or are suspected with rabies and those displaying aggressive behavior. They should be kept in a separate pound/shelter after sterilization and immunization, the order stated.
The court directed the civic bodies to start dedicated feeding spaces in the wards and place notice boards on them. Anyone found feeding dogs on the streets in violation of norms shall be liable to be proceeded against under the relevant legal framework, it said.