Bhubaneswar, August 23: Odisha government is all set to implement a comprehensive action-plan to manage stray dogs in line with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.
Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Minister Gokulananda Mallick, on the Supreme Court directives said, the Odisha government on Saturday is working out on comprehensive programme to count, sterilise, and vaccinate stray dogs across the state.
“Stray dogs will be released at their places after they are well sterilized and vaccinated.
The vulnerable ones that is feared of rabies will be caged in definite shelters, Mallick stated while reviewing the state’s stance on managing the stray animals in the wake of Supreme Court’s whip.
As on records, Odisha has around seven lakh stray dogs, and 64,000 registered pets so far. To deal with cases of rabies and road mishaps led by cannines that’s on the rise from village streets to highways, the state is, in favour of taking systematic control measures to curb it.
As one of the key measures, prioritized to be implemented soon, the state government has handed over the responsibility to carry out the sterilisation, vaccination, and census of the stray dogs to the Animal resources department.
Secondly, the department has imposed stricter rules on feeding cannines on roads and roadside selling of meat.
“Our department will carry out mass sensitization drive in future to intuit denizens not to feed stray dogs indiscriminately on roadsides. Instead, designated feeding zones will be created where individuals and NGOs can provide food for them”, the Minister added.
