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Priyanka Khanna in New Delhi
Minister of State for Social Welfare and Empowerment and staunch animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi has protested against the civic body's plan to kill stray dogs in Bombay.
The minister has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilas Deshmukh, protesting against the Bombay Municipal Corporation's plan to kill stray canines in the city.
Killing of stray dogs was stopped three years ago following pleas by animal rights activists. But the BMC has decided to resume the killings, blaming the dogs for spreading an epidemic caused by rat excreta. The disease has killed eight people and affected 65.
"It is medically proved that leptospirosis is caused by the bacteria of rat excreta. Instead of killing innocent animals, the municipality should probably clean up the city," an official in the ministry said.
The head of the Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Colonel (retd) A R Nageshkar, said leptospirosis surfaced after widespread waterlogging following the recent rains.
"The municipality should clean the city and maybe vaccinate people, as the bacteria enters the body through cuts and bruises when people walk through the flooded streets."
In her letter, Gandhi pointed to the all-India animal birth control programme that emphasises sterilisation and vaccination as the best option for controlling the stray canine population.
Officials said Gandhi also expressed concern over reports that BMC officials feel sterilising the dogs is not feasible. The minister said indiscriminate slaughter of street dogs had failed miserably in controlling their population.
"The gruesome and barbaric killing of dogs -- practised since Independence -- has neither reduced the number of stray dogs nor the incidence of rabies," said Gandhi.
"In Delhi, even after the random slaughter of one-third of the dog population in 1990, there was no long-term reduction in their numbers.
"This is because the natural population of dogs always multiplies to the number that can be sustained by the environment. So females give birth to additional numbers, replacing the vacuum."
Ministry officials said the animal birth control programme in Bombay has reduced the city's dog population and in some areas no rabies case has been reported for months.
According to estimates, non-government organisations in Bombay sterilise about 5,000 dogs every year.
Indo-Asian News Service
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