‘ABC should go hand in hand with Zero garbage’

‘ABC should go hand in hand with Zero garbage’

"Animal Birth Control (ABC) Programme which has been initiated in many cities and municipalities of the state should go hand in hand with Zero garbage drive to attain desired results in reducing stray dog population" said Dr.V N Appaji rao, Vice Chairman, Animal Welfare Board of India.
Dr.Rao who was in Tiruvannamalai recently, to appraise the operations of dog sterilization center run by Karuna Society for Animals and Nature in co-ordination with Tiruvannamalai municipality to help the ABC programme, heaped praise on the state for being pioneer in the nation in executing the programme in many of its urban local bodies.
Speaking to this blogger on the sidelines of his visit to the center Dr. Rao said that man occupies more of land in the form of habitation etc. People are migrating to towns from villages and hence newer colonies are coming up in every urban area. This tendency shrinks the open space available for man as well as animals to move around. With increased population, amount of solid waste generated from houses has increased many folds which consists frugal food source for more dogs to thrive, Dr. Rao explained.
If some one kills the dogs in large scale to reduce their population in a particular area or town the population would regain to the original position corresponding to the amount of frugal food available in garbage, by way of reproduction by leftover animals and by migration of dogs from neighbouring area or village. For example in Chennai Metropolitan Corporation was killing 12,000 dogs per year by cruel ways including electrocution. But the dog population never subsided until it started ABC programme in 1996. Now the corporation is doing same number of sterilization surgery to dogs every year. Apart from dog population coming down in the city, cases of dog bites coming down there. This is because sterilized dogs would not have pregnancy and subsequent aggressiveness, he explained.
“It would be better for ABC programme in any given local body to complete sterilization in 80 percent of its total stray dog population within 6 months ie. between its two reproductive seasons, which falls in the months of January-March and September-December. If your programme crosses that cycle the leftover animals again start to produce new puppies. But if it is not possible to finish it in 6 months it would be better if it does not crosses one year” Dr. Appaji rao said.
However he pointed out, that though you execute ABC programme well, in absence of an effective solid waste management aimed at zero garbage, which would curtail the food sources available in garbage, stray dogs from other areas would migrate in to exploit the available feed, he said. Leslie Robinson, Manager of Tiruvannamalai sterilization center accompanied.