Pune: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will start a helpline to provide emergency medical care to stray dogs, cats and small animals. The civic body receives 15 to 20 complaints daily about injured and ailing stray animals. However, the civic body currently lacks its own hospital, making it difficult to treat these animals on its own.
Currently, PMC is dependent on private non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working for animal welfare to provide emergency treatment to injured stray dogs, cats, and other small animals. The complaints regarding the stray animals are referred to the NGOs who provide treatment free of cost. However, it becomes difficult for the civic body to request these bodies each time to provide free treatment on priority to these animals.
To have its own system in place to provide treatment to stray animals in case of accidents or illness, PMC has decided to appoint three agencies — Canine Control and Care, Blue Cross Society and Universal Animal Welfare Society. These agencies are already conducting the animal birth control (ABC) programme for PMC. The civic body will pay remuneration to these NGOs for treating the animals. The proposal regarding the same has been made and will be submitted to PMC chief next week for approval, said a civic official.
Dr Sarika Funde, veterinary superintendent of PMC, said, “Daily we get many calls regarding injured stray dogs or cats. Sometimes the complaints are regarding seriously ailing stray dogs, but we don’t have our own system to handle such cases. To address this issue, we have decided to appoint private organisations to handle such complaints and provide treatment. A helpline will be started on which citizens can complain about injured or ailing stray dogs, cats etc.”
“We are thinking that the work to handle the complaints and provide treatment to strays can be given to these organisations. Responsibility to handle complaints of five ward offices to each organisation can be allotted. After the merger of 34 villages in PMC, the number of stray dogs and cats has increased in our jurisdiction and there is a need to have a system to handle such complaints,” she said.