Doubts over dog sterilisation centre

Mumbai: The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) has demanded that the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai refrain an NGO in Mulund West from implementing an animal birth control (ABC) programme that it started this month. According to a letter that the AWBI has written, the NGO has not taken the mandatory approval required from the AWBI to implement the service. The NGO, on the contrary, says that as it had the MCGM’s permission, it has built the necessary facility but hasn’t begun the service yet.

It all started when Shakuntala Majumdar, president, Thane Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TSPCA), wrote to the AWBI asking if the NGO, Utkarsh Star Mitra Mandal, had taken approval from the board. The board, in its written communication to Ms Majumdar, said that there was no such NGO that had been given the approval to start the ABC centre. The AWBI — which asked Ms Majumdar and People for Animals (PFA), an NGO working for animal welfare — to conduct an inspection on behalf of AWBI, also wrote to the municipal commissioner of MCGM asking him to desist from implementing the programme through Utkarsh Star Mitra Mandal.   

“I visited the ABC centre to inspect the premises and documents as authorised by the AWBI. It is common knowledge that only organisations recognised by the AWBI are allowed to carry out ABC programmes. The board was obviously concerned and wanted to know whether the flaw was on the MCGM’s part, especially because there were claims about operations being carried out on 100 dogs per day, in which case there should be adequate infrastructure to shelter that number of dogs for five days till their release. A simple inspection of documents would have clarified the matter,” Ms Majumdar said.

Nirali Koradia from PFA said, “They have stated that they haven’t commenced the services, which is hard for me to believes as I saw hundreds of dogs at their centre. Due to the municipal commissioner of the local authority being unavailable, the conclusion to this issue is being delayed till Monday.”

The centre, which was inaugurated on November 3, was built with an aim to help stray dogs in distress and control their population through active public participation and mobilisation of resources. “The core activity of this programme is sterilisation and immunisation of stray dogs,” read the invitation for the inauguration.

The ABC Centre covers around 6,000 sq ft of area and has 500 kennels structured in it.

D.R. Londhe, secretary, Utkarsh Star Mitra Mandal, said “We had applied for approval in May but are yet to receive the final approval. Hence, we did not commence with our ABC services. As of now, we are only treating the injured dogs.”