GREAT news. This is what a civilized society would do.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: "Dr. Sashanka" <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2011 17:56:11 To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Subject: [Assam] Aid sought to curb stray dog menace http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110208/jsp/northeast/story_13551448.jsp Issue Date: Tuesday , February 8 , 2011 Aid sought to curb stray dog menace A STAFF REPORTER Feb. 7: Just Be Friendly (JBF), an organisation which has been sterilising and treating stray animals in the city, has sought aid from the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to set up a full-fledged centre to remove the menace of stray animals. The organisation has submitted a detailed project to the AWBI recently to set up their permanent centre at Sonapur. The centre will take up varied activities right from sterilising stray dogs to creating awareness among the people about them. "The centre will be located on a plot covering seven bighas. Once AWBI approves our project, they will come forward with the necessary infrastructure to let us work smoothly," said Kongkon Baruah, administrator-cum veterinary officer of the JBF. Baruah said besides a full fledged veterinary hospital, it will have rescue centres for stray dogs and cattle. "JBF also has a plan of creating awareness among the residents of the nearby areas on the nature and treatment of stray animals," Baruah said. The city has over 40,000 stray dogs. They are present in every locality. One of them even entered the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium during the India-New Zealand ODI last year. "In 2007 when we conducted a survey in the city, the number of stray dogs was a little over 30,000. By now, the number has crossed 40,000," Baruah said. The JBF has been sterilising stray dogs in the city since 2008 with the help of a team of experts. They also treat injured dogs with the help of their mobile animal clinic. The JBF is now being run from a rented room. But carrying on such a huge task is not possible from a rented room, Baruah said. The JBF and People for Animal are the only two organisations in the city which have been working to check their population through sterilisation. But their staff is much less than required. "In one month, we concentrate in one particular area. The strength of our staff is not enough to cover a large area," said Baruah. "Since 2008, we have sterilised around 1,200 dogs. After sterilising we also inject anti-rabies vaccine to each of them," he added. Shashanka Shekhar Dutta, the JBF's chief functionary, said the awareness drive was essential to remove the misconceptions about animal activists. This lack of awareness put animal activists in immense trouble when they go to do their work. "People suspect that they eat the dogs. So they try to stop us while we go to sterilise the dogs," he added. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
