Kathmandu, November 13

Kathmandu Metropolitan City has neutered 21 stray dogs living on the premises of the prime minister’s official residence in Baluwatar.

KMC said it had captured all the dogs from the premises of the PM’s official residence following a request for the same. A team of veterinary doctors had captured the dogs and sent them to the Department of Environment, where the dogs were neutered. The dogs will be sent to Baluwatar after they fully recover, according to KMC officials.

Dr Prabin Thapa, who has been assisting the KMC in the stray dogs neutering campaign, said the dogs would be sent to their original abode as KMC did not have any special facility to shelter them. Thapa said stray dogs should not be left in a new place as they could be attacked and even killed by the dogs living there. KMC with support from Jane Goodall Institute Nepal has been running a programme ‘Manu Mitra’ (Human Friend) since April 20, 2016,  to control stray dog population. The programme was officially launched by sterilising 106 stray dogs that were living in Singha Durbar.

KMC has been providing medical treatment expenses, vehicles and employees to capture and sterilise stray dogs, while JDIN has been providing veterinary doctors and technical assistance.

Despite all its efforts, however, KMC has not been able to control the stray dog population in the valley. It has urged all 32 ward chairs to cooperate and support the technical and medical team deployed by KMC to control stray dog population.

Head of Environment Management Department at KMC Hari Kumar Shrestha said, “Controlling stray dog population is not an easy task. We are working slowly but steadily to gain effective results.”

Dr Thapa of JDIN said they were working to sterilise stray dogs by dividing Kathmandu into 12 clusters. Claiming that they had sterilised more than 14,000 stray dogs over a period of eight years, Dr Thapa said KMC needed to deploy a large number of employees for the purpose. According to him, there are more than 22,000 stray dogs in KMC alone.

Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital said an average of 3,000 people a month receive the anti-rabies vaccine from the hospital. Of them, 95 per cent are dog bite patients. The hospital also said that dog bite cases were increasing every year.