Posted On Sunday, November 28, 2010 at 02:04:03 AM
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=2&contentid=2010112820101128020402969c99f8adf
The Animal Birth Control Programme which involves sterilisation of stray dogs across the city was supposed to control the dog population and certainly not harm them or kill them. However, in Bhandup (west), most of the stray dogs that are picked up for the programme end up getting critically injured.
On Saturday, when some of the dogs got injured, locals and animal activists gathered and pulled up the BMC staff.
The incident took place near Gadhav Naka. A BMC van was out to catch stray dogs to take them for sterilisation. The van already had half a dozen canines inside and graspers got busy catching some more in the area. Locals noticed that some of them were badly injured.
“The dogs were badly injured while being caught. The graspers were dragging them ruthlessly. Two of the dogs were bleeding profusely,” said a resident, requesting anonymity. The locals then alerted Madhavi Bhatkar, an animal welfare activist, who rushed to the spot.
“I was stunned by what I saw. The dogs were bleeding. When I confronted the graspers who had caught them, they refused to explain and instead insisted that I should take up the matter with their seniors,” said Bhatkar, a resident of Bhandup. She then went to the sterilisation centre in Mulund east and questioned the officials there.
By the time she reached the centre the dogs had been brought there too. “I was so moved by the plight of the dogs. The officials at the centre on the other hand told me that such injuries were common and that I should not worry too much. One of them went to the extent of saying that the programme was for the benefit of humans and not dogs,” said an irked Bhatkar, who immediately dashed off complaints to several BMC officials.
When Mumbai Mirror contacted Dr DN Shirodkar from the Mulund centre, he said he was aware of the incident. “Only two of the dogs were injured. The injuries were not all that critical. Often dogs in their bid to evade the graspers get hurt. There is no reason for anybody to make an issue out of it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bhatkar is no mood to give up. “I will send the pictures of the injured dogs to several officers and activists. I will see to it that guilty are punished,” she said.
