Only 3 Shelter Homes for stray dogs in Jammu
Sanjeev K Sharma
JAMMU, Mar 13: The menace of stray animals in Jammu seems to have no solution at least in near future and many times the stray cows and dogs have become a cause of road accidents while the stray dogs have become a matter of concern for all after many incidents of biting brutally and even killing the people especially children, ladies and elders have come to fore.
An expert on the subject informed that the stray cows in Jammu are of two types-the cows from dairy farms, left on roads or at other places so that the passersby or others may feed them and such cows are mostly seen near the office of Divisional Commissioner Jammu and at Channi area while other type of stray cows are those which are left by their owners after they stop giving milk.
Many of these cows are seen grazing on wastes from garbage dumps at many places.
Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) is the urban local body mandated to take care of stray animals along with other issues like cleanliness and sanitation.
When contacted, Dr. Gorav Chowdhary, Animal Welfare Office at JMC informed that after picking such stray cows of dairy farms, the JMC people keep them at Cattle Pond in Dogra Hall for a week and during this time if someone comes to claim such cows, the same are returned after charging a fine of Rs. 2000 for the cows that gives milk and Rs. 1500 for those who can’t be milked but if none comes to claim these cows, they are then shifted to Nagrota ‘Gao-Shalla’ (cow shelter home).
He further informed that the JMC daily picks 3-4 cows from different locations of Jammu and most of these animals remain those from the dairy farms.
More sources informed that the Nagrota cow shelter home at present has some 200-250 cows and the shelter home is equipped with all the required facilities like availability of para-vets and a veterinary doctor along with personnel for feeding these animals while 12 persons are involved in maintaining cleanliness at the home apart from some watchmen.
Reliable sources informed that the bovine animals rescued by the cops from cattle smugglers are also brought to the cow shelter home of JMC.
“When bovine animals are rescued and the vehicles transporting them are seized, the vehicles are taken to the concerned Police Stations which is later on released through the court after fining the smugglers hefty amount and this money is taken as one time support for feeding the rescued cows,” they maintained adding that such animals are not returned to the smugglers as the smugglers are very likely to sell them to slaughter houses.
On stray dogs, they said that these canines are lifted and kept at shelter homes and presently JMC has three such shelter homes for dogs at Roop Nagar, Chowadi and Bhagwati Nagar.
“Capacity of such stray dogs at these three centres is 100 at Roop Nagar shelter home but only 50 canines are there at present, at Chowadi the capacity is 70 dogs but only 29 dogs are there while at Bhagwati Nagar home, the capacity is 75 but only 26 dogs are kept there,” the sources informed.
They also said that about 30 dogs are picked by JMC daily for sterilisation from different areas of Jammu and these are released on fourth day at the place from where they were picked but after injecting them anti-rabies vaccination and sterilising them following post-operative procedures.
“If someone of these dogs appears very violent, they are kept at the shelter homes for some more days,” the sources claimed.
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