Worry at animal welfare centres: Where do they go after recovery? Sparks panic among organisations and caregivers in Delhi-NCR

Time of India

a day ago

TOI visited Dulari Animal Welfare Centre in Noida to see what it takes to run a shelter for sick, abandoned and aggressive dogs
NEW DELHI/NOIDA: Harsha, a street dog left to die on a road in Shalimar Bagh with her stomach slashed, was rushed to an NGO-run care home for stray animals in Noida two weeks ago. Harsha is on her way to recovery in the ICU there.
However, in the wake of the Supreme Court's order on holding all street canines in shelters, the care home staff is worried if the dog will be able to go back to her "territory", as animals define their space.
At Dulari Animal Welfare Centre in Noida's Sector 34, there is Basanti, wagging her tail. She was brought here a week ago after she bit someone while being fed. Having monitored her and after a health and behaviour review, the centre is set to give Basanti the all-clear certification for return to her caregiver in Noida Sector 1 as mandated by the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023.
However, like other care facilities, Dulari Centre too is uncertain about the next step given the Supreme Court's directive asking Delhi govt and civic bodies of Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad to remove stray dogs from the streets and set up shelters to lodge them.
These care centres apprehend a crisis of overcrowding if caregivers refuse to take back the dogs for fear of municipal officials relocating them from their neighbourhoods.
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With no govt-run shelters for permanently lodging dogs in the city, there is panic among animal rights activists, dog lovers and caregivers who feed stray animals about the municipal corporation rounding up dogs and ferrying them to unknown destinations.
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"We were awake the entire night keeping a vigil on our locality dogs," said Arushi Chibber in east Delhi. Since Monday, residents like Chibber have been making frantic calls to NGOs to take the strays into their safekeeping.
However, as Gaurav Dar, one of the founders of Dulari Animal Welfare Centre, pointed out, "Placing dogs in a shelter permanently is not at all a good idea." Established by the Vasundhara Animal Welfare Trust in collaboration with People for Animals, the Dulari facility can host 100 dogs at a time, concentrating mainly on animals from Noida but sometimes from Delhi and other parts of NCR.
On a visit to Dulari on Tuesday, TOI saw Dr Rahul Malik tending to Nawaaz brought from Greater Noida for a stab injury in the stomach in a room designated as ICU.
Brownie was being monitored for aggressive behaviour in another kennel after biting someone in Noida Sector 12. The centre caters to around 300 dogs every month. "Now, imagine if dogs keep adding up in this limited space. There will be no room left for the animals in need," said Dar.
"Also you need doctors, attendants, nutritious food, clean water and enough space for dogs to play to prevent fights and infections. Can MCD create quality shelters with trained manpower within a few weeks?"
Geeta Seshamani of Friendicoes-SECA, which has rescued, rehabilitated and cared for street animals for nearly 45 years, said that the Supreme Court order was impossible to implement at so many levels.
"For one, there are no dog shelters in Delhi," she said. "Instead of adopting a scientific and rational approach to deal with aggressive dogs, this approach of removing dogs to shelters means sweeping incarceration of all community dogs.
"
The real solution, Seshamani argued, was already laid out in the ABC Rule, which calls for adequate sterilisation, vaccination and revaccination facilities. She said that street dogs serve a critical purpose and their disappearance might result in an increase of monkey and rat bites resulting in rabies cases.
Meanwhile, across colonies and societies, dog lovers like Amarshree Kapoor are keeping their heads high. Like every day, Amarshree quietly went on the lanes of Sarita Vihar tracking, feeding dogs, refilling water bowls, seeing if the dogs had health issues. "The focus should be on sterilisation and stopping forced breeding," she said. "Removing dogs from the streets is not the solution. These animals are part of our ecosystem.
"
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