Hyderabad: In Kothapally municipality, the stray dog menace has put in danger the lives of locals and livestock. Packs of stray dogs have been attacking and killing goats, piglets, and hens for past few years.
Azizuddin Faizan, a social worker, along with scores of people held a protest at the municipal commissioner’s office on Wednesday, demanding that the municipality take steps to control the rise of the stray dog population.
Azizuddin came with four of his dead goats, which he claimed, were killed by eight stray dogs, which jumped the 7.5-foot boundary wall of his farm to attack the livestock injuring another goat as well. This was not the first time his animals were killed that way.
On January 3, 2020, the dogs killed his goat. Again in January 2024, three of his hens were killed, followed by another such incident on February 20, 2024, when the dogs killed six of his goats.
“I don’t raise these animals to sell. I have been raising the cross-breeds of Kondagorre, Barbari, and Gulabi goat species in addition to other animals in my five-gunta farm which I have taken on lease six years ago,” he tells Siasat.com.
He claims that he initially bought 3 goats, which had multiplied to 20 goats, among whom ten goats were killed by stray dogs.
Threat of rabies neglected
He recalls that on January 26, 2022, a rabid dog bit three women and a buffalo. At the time, a municipal staffer and four youngsters killed that dog. When the issue went to the notice of animal rights activists, they escalated it to BJP MP Maneka Gandhi. She got cases booked against five individuals. Soon after, the municipal commissioner issued a memo stating that there was no trace of rabies in the municipality.
Azizuddin, however, disputes that claim.
“Once in a while dogs have been dying strangely. Unless post-mortem is conducted on them, or the animals killed by dogs, how can we believe that there is no prevalence of rabies,” he asks.
He also remembers that last year, the municipal chairman had announced before the media that the municipality had allotted Rs 1.5 lakh for animal birth control measures. However, to an RTI request field by him, seeking information about the funds spent for the purpose, he got a reply from the commissioner stating that from March 2020 to February 2024, no budget was allotted for animal birth control.
National award versus reality
In 2022-23, the new Kothapally municipality was among the few from the state to receive the national award for Swachh Sarvekshan. Despite the recognition, sanitation has once again gone for a toss, claims Azizuddin.
“There are only two tractors to collect the waste from the municipality having a population of 15,000. Once a week waste is collected from the households. Apart from that, the chicken and mutton shops dump the waste generation on the streets, on which these dogs feed. Just before the selection for the award, the municipality had purchased 250 bins and kept them at various locations, but soon after receiving the award those bins were removed,” he claims.
He says that scores of stray dogs can be found on the premises of the municipality office any day.
“The municipality had threatened the people from the pig-rearing community (Erukalas) and shifted their pigs to Bengaluru in the past. But the stray dogs have killed around 200 piglets that were raised by the Erukalas,” he noted.
According to Pradeep Nair, founder of Animal Warriors, the stray dogs that depend on dump yards and garbage for food are the ones that develop a certain aggressive nature, as they thrive in packs at the dump yard, multiplying rapidly because of the availability of food.
“Then the fight for food pushes some of the dogs out of the pack and they move into different areas, exhibiting aggressive and violent behaviour,” he observes.
The Chittakarthi factor
Chitteklarthi is the mating season of dogs, which is currently underway.
“The packs of dogs are disturbed because of the mating season when the temperatures are high. This is when they get irritated easily and resort to attacks. But every time there is an issue of a stray dog killing a baby or livestock, they kill the dog immediately. Unless a post-mortem is conducted and a thorough investigation is done, the actual reason may never be revealed, and someone else will become vulnerable to such an attack because a logical conclusion was not arrived at,” Pradeep opines.
Demands and solutions
Compensation is not what Azizuddin has been seeking from the municipality. All he has been demanding is the safety of livestock and protection from stray dog attacks. For this, he believes that shifting the dogs to safe shelter houses, special animal birth control drives, and sterilising them were necessary steps to be taken.
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