Pune: Residents of Deccan Gymkhana have claimed that they spotted a van belonging to Universal Animal Welfare Society releasing six to seven dogs near Chitale Bandhu on Aug 30 in violation of Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules.According to members of the Deccan Gymkhana Parisar Samiti (DGPS), after volunteers spotted the van, they checked records. The residents claimed these dogs had been picked up from areas like Katraj and Ambegaon, around 10km away, instead of Deccan.Dr Sushma Date, a member of DGPS, told TOI, “Relocation of dogs is one of the major reasons for dog bites cases. Local territorial dogs attack newcomers and during such confrontations, humans can also get injured. This defeats the entire purpose of the ABC programme. Our volunteer team in Deccan has closely co-operated and worked with PMC since 2012 in getting more than 5,000 dogs sterilised in Deccan, Model Colony, Karvenagar and Kothrud. We have achieved over 90% sterilization in the Deccan area (Prabhag 13 and 14) and it is deeply frustrating when PMC enables its contracted NGO to dump new dogs in our area without taking any action against such violation of ABC Rules.”A senior Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) official denied any such relocation attempt in this particular case.Swati Shelke, secretary of Universal Animal Welfare Society, claimed: “No relocation was done. All the 11 dogs were from the Katraj–Ambegaon area. Two belonged to an owner and were returned to him. The rest were released in the same area. It was Saturday and we had received a complaint about an injured dog. The van was already out and went for that emergency case while the Katraj dogs were still in the van. The van was passing through Deccan to pick up the injured dog when someone saw it and stopped it, alleging relocation.“Residents further alleged that some of these dogs were released without sterilisation collars, making it difficult to verify whether they had undergone the procedure. They also pointed out that no representative either from the NGO or PMC was present during the release, as mandated by the ABC Rules 2023.Animal welfare volunteer Neena Rai said, “We request the civic chief to hold a meeting of the ABC monitoring committee and investigate this incident as per ABC Dog Rules 10 (4). The local authority should inquire into the violation of these rules on receipt of the complaint against the ABC centre and terminate or suspend any engagement with such an organization on the basis of the recommendation of the local ABC monitoring committee or the board.“
