Few takers for government sterilisation scheme as stray dog numbers soar

PANAJI: Despite numerous sterilisation drives by voluntary organisations over the past years, roughly 1.4 lakh dogs — both stray and owned — presently roam the state. That’s almost 10% of Goa’s human population. In the meantime, an attractive government initiative aimed at managing them lies largely unutilised.
The Goa Small Animal Rescue Management Scheme, 2014, was conceptualised to control animal populations, particularly stray dogs, through village-level sterilisation programmes.It offers grants of up to 100% towards costs of surgery and veterinarian salaries among others, but demand for the scheme is yet to catch on. Voluntary organisations attribute this to a lack of awareness on the part of local self-governing bodies, which are crucial to its implementation.
Data with the department of animal husbandry and veterinary sciences indicates that of Goa’s 198 panchayats and 13 municipal councils, just 33 have availed of the scheme.
Dr Karlette Fernandes, operations director at the Assagao-based Worldwide Veterinary Services (WVS)-Hicks International Training Centre, says the village panchayats of Aldona, Siolim, Parra and Assagao, and the Mapusa Municipal Council have only recently signed an MoU with WVS-Hicks to implement the scheme in their respective jurisdictions.
“The rules necessitate an agreement between panchayats/municipalities and a registered animal welfare organisation capable of carrying out the work. The paperwork involved has actually deterred many local bodies, but things are slowly changing,” Fernandes says. A handful of other panchayats in Bardez, including Arpora-Nagoa, are expected to come on board soon, she says.
Incidentally, ground data gathered by WVS’s flagship project, Mission Rabies, has revealed that the concentration of dogs is highest in Bardez and Salcete talukas, with each housing an estimated 30,000 canines. Tiswadi comes in second with 8,000, followed by Pernem with 5,000. These numbers include both, stray and owned canines.
“Stray dog populations keep increasing largely due to the tendency of many pet owners to dump unwanted puppies in public spaces instead of sterilising their adult dogs in the first place. The puppies grow and reproduce, thus creating large packs that mostly retreat to the hills and valleys when attempts are made to neuter and vaccinate them,” Fernandes says.
Another niggling issue, predominant in the state’s hinterlands, is that of owned but free-roaming dogs. Such dogs are merely fed by families in return for guarding their plantations and fields, but live out in the open, much like strays. Problems arise when the ‘owners’ are either reluctant or unwilling to sterilise and vaccinate them.
Fernandes says a systematic approach is crucial to tackle the situation. “First, the government must do a ground study to accurately quantify the stray dog population. Based on this number, the sterilisation drives it embarks on should either equal or exceed the birth rate in each region,” she says, while also making a case for the establishment of one animal welfare organisation in each of the state’s 11 talukas that can meet the government’s target.