Stray Dog Menace

The doorbell rang loudly and as I marched forward to open it and thinking, all I would say to vent my anger on the maid for coming so late. But before I could open my mouth, her face left me speechless. She was scared and in great pain. While coming down the street, a stray dog ran after her and took almost a pound of her flesh.

Living in Saket is a bliss. Being one of the posh localities of South Delhi, it's quiet and peaceful surrounding, well maintained roads and neatness within the colony strikes a chord with the residents. But this fear of dog bite is creating a havoc not only among the domestic help, but even the children are afraid to go unescorted up to the park which is just a few feet away from the houses. The residents are totally at a loss as to how to handle the situation. Once or twice complaints have been made and a few dogs have been picked away, but they seem to come back again. At every nook and corner of the colony you will find such dogs roaming about aimlessly. They even howl in bunches in the night making it difficult to sleep and old people with heart problems and other ill people suffer the most.

But it’s not that only authorities are to be blamed for that .Even after knowing that these dogs are creating a havoc ,some residents feed them posing yet more danger .One old man buys milk packets and feeds the dogs. So whenever anyone comes with the milk packets, the dogs try to pounce on the milk packet. The residents are weary of such stray dogs.

 While residents continue to live with the fear of dog bites ,it may take a much longer time for the dog menace to come to an end ,as catching the dogs and taking them away is a far cry as sterilisation of stray dogs is also hardly done. As a result these dogs are increasing in number with each passing day and are now seen at every nook and corner of Saket.

I urge the RWA's of Saket to jointly take a note of this grave situation otherwise the day is not far off when death due to rabies would increase, working class  would be limping back , children would be cornered in their homes and residents ambushed on their way.

By Seema Kumar , J 256 , Saket .

Fact file : The Animal Welfare Association is supposed to have a feeding site for Stray Dogs in every colony in an isolated area only where the Stray Dogs are fed at fixed hours. There should be board alerting residents to be away from the area at feeding times. Dog Lovers should feed the dogs at these fixed allocated sites and not anywhere and everywhere. People with the idea of securing 'Punya' for their after life and to avoid bad karma in this life , feed dogs at odd intervals and odd places. Instead of sheltering the dogs in their homes they feed these dogs haphazardly thereby making the colony roads dirty by throwing stale food and non-veg food which is very unhygienic for the residents. The animal Welfare Board should take proper action and give proper shelter to these stray animals and the residents are urged to get in touch of the Animal Welfare Association to solve their problem.