Dogs may be man’s best friend but when they roam around the city streets uncontrolled, they become the worst nuisance.

According to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, around 30,000 stray dogs of the Capital city are a snarling menace to public safety.

According to a survey report of Animal Welfare Network Nepal, most of the dogs end up on streets after they are abandoned or ignored by their owners, and their uncontrolled breeding simply increases their number.

Considering the fact that the Capital city is being dogged by stray canines, the 27th Municipal Council meeting of the KMC has announced that it will start a multimillion project from next fiscal year to control the menace of stray dogs.

KMC Chief and Executive Officer Rudra Singh Tamang said the metropolis has allocated Rs35 million for the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Dog Management Project.

“All stray dogs will be removed from the Capital city in three years,” Tamang announced last week. “Killing animals is not a solution; we must respect their right to life. The project will aim to rid the city of the menace created by the strays.”

Hari Kumar Shrestha, chief of KMC’s Public Health Division, said sterilisation is the only solution.

When on the streets, unvaccinated and untamed canines also serve as carriers of diseases, including rabies, and pose threat to public health.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that one gram of dog poop can contain 23 million faecal coliform bacteria, whipworms, hookworms, roundworms and tapeworms and carries diseases like corona, cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis.

Besides disease threat, stray canines are constant troublemakers, especially with nightly howl in the neighbourhood.

Anyone who has walked, cycled, motorcycled or driven along Kathmandu streets during the night can confirm how packs of frenzied strays prowl the alleys, and burst out of corners, trying to tail them, as they bay at “their target” with their creepy glowing eyes.

Shrestha of KMC said the metropolis would work in coordination with Human International Society to manage the stray dogs.

“You can imagine the severity of the problem when we have 30,000 stray dogs to deal with,” said Shrestha. “We will also sign a deal with Animal Welfare Network Nepal for the same.”

Stating that dog population control programme has already begun in Kathmandu, Shrestha said a private firm, Kathmandu Model, has been sterilising dogs and vaccinating them against rabies in Dahachowk, Thankot. “Sterilising dogs is more difficult than sterilising humans. Canines need to be kept under observation for at least a week after sterlisation,” said Shrestha. In the wake of growing menace of strays, the KMC has made it mandatory for Capital denizens that they register their domesticated animals.

KMC Chief Tamang said the metropolis would reduce the number of strays in Kathmandu to almost zero in three years but added that the metropolis must be get support in return—that no one abandons their pets and leaves them to roam around the city streets.