From sterilising stray dogs to penalising people who feed the stray dogs in public spaces and roadsides, the Nationwide Accelerated Dog Population Management and Rabies Control programme seems to leave no stones unturned to address stray dog issues. This time, the programme is working on construction of a dog shelter at Nakula in Thimphu. But the shelter will not accommodate all the stray dogs of Thimphu. The shelter is expected to be complete within three days.
Thirty Desuups are constructing the shelter on four acres of land. There will be five compartments each with the capacity to accommodate about 100 dogs.
The officials from the Bhutan Power Corporation are helping with the power supply works.
Since there are different compartments, the dogs will be placed according to their behaviour. This means, all the dogs that are weak will be in one compartment. According to Dr Kinley Dorji, the team leader of the Nationwide Accelerated Dog Population Management and Rabies Control Programme, this is to let dogs have an equal share of food.
“Once complete, that shelter will be able to accommodate 500 to 600 dogs. We are going to target all those aggressive dogs within Thimphu, not only Thimphu Thromde but even the district. There are some dogs in gewogs that are quite aggressive. We are getting a lot of calls from the people in the gewog. So those dogs will be also lifted and put in the shelter,” said Dr Kinley Dorji.
The Nu 2 M project will have shelters, isolation kennels- a facility to house sick dogs, a kitchen, treatment rooms, a biological pit and a caretaker house.
Once complete, the Department of Livestock will hand over the shelter to Zeus for the homeless stray dogs, a non-profit organisation.
“There are a lot of issues going on in the city. There is a dog bite issue. People are saying there are a lot of diseases spreading. We want the dog to get food on time and take care of their health,” said Thinley Norbu, Founder of Zeus.
Through this project, the Department of Livestock hopes to minimise the risk of dog bite cases. A few residents of Thimphu said the initiative will help them to have a safe and clean society.
“We cannot even go to the shops because of the dogs. Moreover, I don’t let the children play outside because the dogs bite them. It will be helpful if they take all the dogs from here,” said Sonam Yangki, a resident of Thimphu.
“It will be really nice if the dogs are taken away from here because it is not safe for the children. Especially when we go for walk in the morning or evening, we don’t feel safe,” added Tashi Choden, another resident of Thimphu.
The National Referral Hospital recorded about 6,500 dog bite cases in the past six years from across the country.
Karma Wangdi
Edited by Thsering Zam
