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Journalism of Courage
In yet another incident, stray dogs attacked a group of college girls here today, seriously injuring eight of them.
Following the death of an infant last week on the banks of the Musi river after a stray dog’s attack, the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation had roped in an NGO to carry out its newly instituted sterilisation programmes for the dogs. Municipal Commissioner Sanjay Jaju said that the Corporation does not have the necessary infrastructure to completely clear the city of stray dogs.
Today’s incident took place in the morning at Koti Women’s College. According to Sunaina, a student of the college, “We had just entered the college when a group of dogs jumped on the girls. About three dogs bit the girls even before they could react and shout for help.”
She said college officials and other students rushed to their assistance and drove the dogs out of the college campus. The girls were immediately rushed to the nearby Narayanguda Hospital and administered first aid and vaccinations. Later, a Corporation dog squad picked up the dogs and took them to a municipal clinic.
“Stray dogs have always been a menace on the campus. Constant complaints submitted to the Municipal office have not yielded any result,” Sunaina said.
“We follow the animal birth control system, under which we catch dogs, sterilise them and leave them from where they were picked up. We can kill only those dogs that are diseased or rabid, we are not allowed to kill other dogs,” said Jaju.
He added that the city at present had approximately one lakh dogs. “Our new pilot project will carry out the sterilisation work about seven times faster than our present method,” Jaju said. He also said that they were picking up dogs whenever they received complaints from the public.
