KATHMANDU, April 6: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is planning to treat stray dogs in all the 35 wards of the metropolitan city, where there are an estimated 22,000 street dogs. The KMC has allocated Rs 33 million for a three-year plan to manage the street dogs in the capital city.
To kick start the campaign, the KMC is going to first catch the dogs inside the premises of the Singha Durbar, check up their health condition, treat them, vaccinate them with anti-rabies, carry out needed surgery, implant birth control measures and again leave them there to enjoy their life around the administrative center of the country.
According to the KMC, there are 115 to 120 stray dogs inside the Singha Durbar, where there is the prime minister's office, 26 ministries and the National Planning Commission.
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"We are planning to manage the street dogs of the city within three years," said Hari Kumar Shrestha, chief of Public Health Division at the KMC. "We have recently started treating the dogs from Singha Durbar."
As part of its campaign to manage the dogs in the city, KMC will collect the data of dogs from streets and will also visit every house to register pet dogs for identification of owners as well as dogs and history details. "We are planning to go to every house for registration. We are preparing for it and will launch the door-to-door campaign next month," said Shrestha.
According to Shrestha, they will take care of the dogs until their diseases or wounds are healed. "Then, the dogs will be sent back to the streets as KMC doesn't have sufficient space to keep them," he added.
Manoj Gautam, executive director of the Jane Goodall Institute, Nepal, said, "We are collaborating with the KMC to manage the street dogs in formulating policies and rules. The main objective of the three-year plan is to improve the health of every dog in the city. We intend to create an environment where not a single dog is detested in the city."
"We will carry out treatment of dogs and surgery whereas contraceptive methods to manage the population of street dogs will be applied if necessary," Gautam said. "We also wish people to adopt the street dogs as their pet. But we can't assure that all the street dogs will get adopted. We will assure that every one of them will be healthy and safe from possible diseases," he added.
Humane Society International is technically and financially helping the KMC for the plan while local organizations are working together for the betterment.
