The Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) is not aware of the decisions announced by Mayor Pramila Pandey regarding the ban on the breeding and breeding of Rottweiler and Pitbull dog breeds, as revealed by the responses to RTI queries submitted by animal rights activists.
Strangely, although KMC is unaware of the decisions made at the mayor’s behest, as well as its own resolution, pet owners, fearing action by the authorities, have begun to abandon dogs of different breeds on the streets. So far, 32 abandoned domestic dogs have been rescued by NGOs and individuals.
Leading veterinarian and animal rights activist Dr. SK Paul said dogs abandoned in large numbers amount to cruelty to animals. “KMC has a lot to answer for in this situation. You must explain for what reasons you are attacking the companion dogs. It has no framework of rules, it has no infrastructure. This is what KMC has told us,” he said.
Dr. Paul and his associates presented RTI with 26 questions on this topic, and KMC responded on November 21. To each question, KMC said that no data was available or was not known to them. I didn’t even have an answer as to which dog breeds had been banned and what the guidelines were. HT has copies of RTI’s responses.
At Pandey’s initiative, the KMC General House passed a resolution in October, prohibiting people from keeping these dog breeds as pets.
Pandey had described the two dog breeds as “dangerous”.
The KMC resolution prohibited people from keeping these dog breeds as pets. It had also made the registration of companion dogs essential and announced a fine of $5000 in case of attacks by dogs of foreign breeds.
The mayor had also announced that rottweilers and pit bulls would not be allowed inside the city, a decision she later retracted after an uproar. She also announced that pet owners would bear the full cost of treatment if their pet attacked someone.
People admitted that many of them panicked, not only because of the fine and legal action the mayor announced, but also because of KMC’s decision to issue a dedicated number, urging people to reach out to them if they had a problem. with any pet dog.
KMC’s chief veterinarian, Dr. RK Niranjan, said: “We posted a number 0512-2526004 and 2526005 to help people report any problems with the dogs to us and we promised complete confidentiality.”
The ads have started to have an impact.
“I have a German Shepherd, a French Mastiff, a Great Dane, a Dalmatian, two Rottweilers that I rescued from different parts of the city. They were all abandoned and fighting for their lives. The stray dogs were tearing them apart,” said Vivek Tiwari from ‘Bezubaan’, an NGO that works for stray dogs. He claimed to have found six such dogs so far.
He said his office has received several calls from people asking to keep their pets at his dog shelter. “People want us to take their pets. They say they are afraid and feel that they may be in trouble. Every day there are between six and ten such calls. We tell them to be responsible for their pets and to be careful instead of throwing them away,” she added.
Shyam Babu, a dog rescuer said: “Two dogs, a German Shepherd and an Argentine Shepherd, were saved in Barra and Yashoda Nagar on November 17 after their owners left them tied to a post without food or water. They were being attacked by stray dogs.”
He said: “In September alone, 12 abandoned foreign breed dogs were rescued. By now, these numbers have increased considerably.”
When asked about RTI’s responses, the mayor expressed surprise that KMC was unaware of the decisions made by her and the house. “Send me the copies of the answers, I will talk to the cattle capture department about this issue,” she said.
“The KMC is the first agency that has banned two breeds in view of public safety. We will continue to enforce the decisions we have made,” he said. However, she did not comment on why the KMC has not formed the rules and guidelines.
According to KMC’s estimate, Kanpur has a population of 34,000 domestic dogs and 2,000 of them were registered with the municipal body, 1,800 after some dog breeds were banned.
