BANGALORE: With recurring reports of stray dog menace in the city, the question is whether the city corporation is doing enough to tackle the problem.While Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) maintains that it needs more powers to deal with the stray dog menace, organisations working for animal welfare believe that the solution to the problem lies elsewhere.According to the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act, stray dogs can be killed only if they are ferocious, terminally injured/ill, or rabid.Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act specifies the procedure to be carried out while capturing dogs for sterilization, immunization and culling.Following the alleged Sandeep, a two-and-a-half-year-old boy due to dog bites in Yelahanka New Town on Friday morning, the focus is back on measures taken by the BBMP to tackle stray dog violence. BBMP Commissioner Siddaiah said that there is an impending petition at the Supreme Court of India asking for the relaxation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.“We seek directions from the court to be able to eliminate dogs in areas where it is absolutely necessary”, he said. Puttige Ramesh, a leading advocate, also opines that the decision to deal with stray dogs should lie with the corporation and that they should be given more powers.Suparna Ganguly, President and Founder, CUPA, an NGO, says, “It is only natural that dogs would frequent areas where garbage is dumped.People need to be educated and there needs to be a proper system of waste management in the city.” She said that city civic facilities have collapsed and the solution to dog menace lies in tackling that.
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