1,514 stray dogs neutered in K-P

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Livestock and Dairy Development Department has successfully neutered 1,514 stray dogs besides vaccinating around 5,048 canines in seven divisions in the past year as part of its efforts to control rabies and stray dog overpopulation.

"The Livestock Department had extended the stray dog neutering programme from the provincial metropolis to the divisional level around a year earlier during which 1,514 stray dogs were neutered," said Muhammad Riaz Khan, Senior Veterinary Officer.

The initiative of dog neutering had initially been launched in Peshawar in 2020 as a pilot project with the objective of controlling the population of stray dogs to eventually contain the deadly zoonotic disease of rabies caused by dog bites, Riaz said.

The drive was a replication of the World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended programme 'Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return' (TNVR) to control rabies and the overpopulation of street dogs, Riaz Khan explained.

Realising positive results in the form of a 50 per cent decrease in cases of dog bite in Peshawar, the Livestock Department had decided to extend the project to the divisional level.

He said the department had also prepared a summary for extension of the drive to the whole of the province at the district level for which an operation theatre would be set up at the Veterinary Hospital for the neutering of stray dogs. "The department has already started training its staff members for operations to neuter dogs which would make them incapable of reproducing," he said.

Apart from that, he continued, the Livestock Department and the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) were jointly working for the establishment of a 'Dog Shelter Home' in Peshawar in the Regi Lalma area.

He said the shelter home would be a sanctuary for injured, disabled, sick and old stray dogs which would be provided food and necessary medicines.

The PDA has proposed the establishment of the dog shelter home on a four-kanal area of land. It would be constructed at a cost of around Rs15 million. This would be the first-ever government-owned dog shelter home in the province which would serve as a role model for a replication of the initiative in other districts.

He further said that the neutering of stray dogs was proving beneficial in controlling the deadly rabies disease, adding that the department had also sought fresh data on dog bites and rabies for Peshawar and its adjoining districts from the Health Department to evaluate the performance of the project.