Valley
KMC starts dog census
The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has begun an official census of stray dogs in the Capital.The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has begun an official census of stray dogs in the Capital.
Chief of Public Health Division Hari Kumar Shrestha said the census will help in formulating a proper policy for managing the street dogs. “The census will set the tone for KMC’s dog management programme set to begin next fiscal year,” he said. “The census will be carried out in all 35 wards of the metropolis over a period of one month.”
The metropolis has allocated Rs35 million budget for the next fiscal year under the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Dog Management Programme in partnership with Humane International Society. Under the programme, it plans to vaccinate the dogs against rabies and make them sterile by neutering dogs and spaying bitches
There are around 300,000 pet dogs in Kathmandu district and 150,000 more are on the streets, Managing Director of Kathmandu Model Veterinary Hospital Dinesh Shahi said, referring to an unofficial research he has conducted recently. “They end up there after being let off by their owners,” he said.
The threat of stray dogs to public safety and health has been a concern in the Capital for long. A Department of Health Services report states that close to 2,000 people are bitten by dogs in Kathmandu district each year. In Nepal, close to 40,000 people are given anti-rabies vaccine each year with more than 96 percent of cases being dog bites.
Likewise, the United States Environmental Protection Agency says that a single gram of dog waste can
contain 23 million faecal
coliform bacteria, which are known to cause cramps, diarrhoea, intestinal illness and serious kidney disorders in humans.