Nothing can be more absurd and anti dog than what the municipal corporation of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh has come out with. They have imposed tax on dog keeping. Now the people having pet dogs will have to pay an annual tax of Rs.630. Not just that they will also have to get their dogs registered which most likely also has a fee failing which they will have to pay a fine upto Rs.5000. They have also made compulsory registeration of pet dogs in Gorakhpur, failing which the owners will have to pay a fine of Rs 5000. For more details kindly go on the link below:
We recently saw how a pit bull Brownie and his owner Amit from Lucknow the capital city of Uttar Pradesh were hounded and harassed. The pit bull was accused of killing its owner an 80 year old lady. However Amit the son of the deceased said that what happened was an accident and Brownie didn't murder his mother as claimed by the neighbours and the media. There were no eyewitnesses to the unfortunate incident but Brownie has been accused and declared the culprit. She was kept for 14 days in isolation in a cage by the Lucknow Municipal Corporation. During this period she showed no aggression. She was a clam dog. But still the authorities were not satisfied and now she has been sent to a trainer for God knows how long......
According to Amit his neighbiurshood especially the children are not at all friendly with dogs. They used to throw stones and sticks at Brownie. They used to unnecessarily press the door bell just to annoy and irritate Brownie.
Well if the UP govt is coming with such anti dog policies then what can we say about the common man living in UP.
Many societies in Noida, UP have started fining the dog feeders / Caregivers for feeding the stray dogs. 50 societies held a meeting in July to find solution for stray dog problem and most them ound fining the feeder the best solution.
Stop feeders from feeding and the stray dogs will automatically perish.
These RWA people are themselves ignorant about dog bevaviour and are reluctant in implementing the ABC program and the same they spread in their society.
There is a thin line between dog owner and caregiver. A dog owner generally keeps one to two dogs in his house where he feeds him and takes care of him. He is held responsible for the actions of his dogs. The caregiver on the other hand feeds stray dogs at their location. In India a caregiver generally feeds on an average 5 to 10 dogs or may be more. There are instances where they feed around 50 to 100 dogs daily. Well, the stray dogs are Indian breed dogs who are not generally not adopted and kept as pets. Pet dogs are often the breed dogs.
Anyhow if these dogs are not looked after by the caregivers they will soon die of starvation, thirst and diseases.
Currently the situation in Noida is very bad. Many RWAs in Noida are fining the caregivers which is both illegal and unethical.
Ambika Shukla who runs the Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre has filed an FIR against one of the RWA members who was instrumental in creating hatred for stray dogs and the caregivers in Noida. He was the first one to start fining the dog feeders for feeding the dogs in his society.
https://twitter.com/GarvJ04/status/1552349298746064896?s=20&t=Od4HoEl25uEkgeLYpeBxfA
But the bigger question is that when the govt and the policy makers of Uttar Pradesh are coming out with such anti dog policies then how can we stop the common man of Uttar Pradesh who already hates dogs to change his negative and hostile mindset towards dogs, dog owners and caregivers who are in minority?
The municipal corporations across India have to devise policies which encourages stray dog adoption and not one which the Prayagraj Municipal corporation has done. Which will quite certainly encourage abandonment of pet dogs and discoueage pet dog adoption.
1 Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
Twitter: @myogiadityanath
Email: cmup@nic.in
2 Prayagraj Municipal corporation
Twitter: @NigamPrayagraj
Email id: commall@nic.in