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With incidents of dogs biting people, residents of Noida sector 34 said they were slipping anti-stress medicines into food for stray canines. Animal feeders said that this was a tried and tested method that worked.
While there is no census data on the number of stray dogs or community dogs, the Noida Authority claims they sterilise 1,200 streets dogs a month. Sector 34 residents’ welfare association (RWA) said they had urged the authority to initiate a special sterilisation drive in their area as well.
“So far there were 15 cases of dog bites here this month alone. The latest victim was a seven-year-old girl who was attacked on Monday. Often it happens that such incidents leads to heated arguments and even clashes between the animal lovers and victims. So with the help of experts we have decided to include medicines to allay the animals’ aggression and get them all vaccinated,” said KK Jain, president, sector 34, RWA.
The RWA said they consulted vets to procure the medicines.
“The government rules are such that we cannot do much to allay the anger of people who or whose loved ones were attacked. We cannot relocate dogs either, so we have decided to live along with them. We are deploying a medicine called Anxocare into food that feeders leave for them,” Dharmendra Sharma, General Secretary RWA sector 34. “It has helped.”
The RWA said they would vaccinate the dogs as well to prevent rabies.
“We will tie up with NGOs for that. It will cost ₹400 to vaccinate a dog, while the calming medicine costs ₹150 a pack that can cover eight to 10 dogs a week,” said Sharma.
The RWA had recently also held a special awareness session on do’s and don’ts to avoid dog aggression or spooking them.
“Feeders have been using the nerve calming medicine for dogs for years, and it’s good that now RWAs are coming along and considering it. The dogs often get aggressive when being cornered or hit by anyone. If suppose a dog is hit by a guard, it will have an aggressive stance for any human. We need to understand that,” said Rafat Ahmed, a dog feeder heling the RWA and runs an NGO named animal connect.
Sector -34 has about 3500 families – roughly 20,000 residents. While there is no census on the number of street dogs, the RWA estimates there must be over 200 street dogs while the authority pegs the number to be around 500.
“We have a roster prepared under which sectors are selected, dogs are sterilised and left at the same spot where they were picked from. We are sterilising about 1200 dogs every month in Noida, and working on initiating a drive in sector-34 soon,” said Gaurav Bansal, assistant project engineer, public health, Noida Authority.
