Is AMC really keen on catching dogs?

It took an aggressive interference from a Canadian animal activist to wake up Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) officials to the fact that there needs to be a humane way to tackle the dog menace in the city. Questions are being raised as to what stopped the civic body from switching to the use of nets to catch dogs and aggressively pursuing the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme.

If the buzz in the civic body is to be believed, the BJP-led civic body is more interested in the infrastructure project. Hence, there is a lack of political will and reluctance in the AMC to spend money on containing the dog population in the city. So far, the civic body has spent around Rs3 crore on sterilising dogs with the assistance of Animal Help Foundation at a rate of Rs367 per dog.

It was in 2006 that the standing committee cancelled the executive wing's proposal to go ahead with the dog sterilisation programme.

This left the ABC programme in the lurch. Now, according to the latest contract (which the AMC scrapped on Thursday) with the AHF, the civic body paid Rs500 for every sterilised dog.

"If we spend Rs500 for an estimated two lakh dogs in the city, we have to spend around Rs10 crore. The civic body chief in elected wing was not willing to spend so much on dogs," said a senior AMC official. Moreover, the civic body continued using iron tongs because the nets to catch dogs cost Rs350 a piece and it also lacks trained staff to do the work.

Former mayor Amit Shah had proposed a dog pound as a solution in one of his budgets. But internal disputes led to dismissal of the proposal when the new elected body took over.