Found a new stray dog on the street? It could be illegally relocated

For many months now, a few dog lovers of Bangalore, including HSR Layout, are concerned that over 70 stray dogs gradually vanished from the streets. One dog lover even confronted one vehicle that had come at night to take away the dogs. There is a police complaint at HSR police station regarding this, and we have reported about it earlier. To prevent the illegal location of such dogs (because that could lead to more trouble than peace as dogs can get aggressive in a new area), a group of pet lovers across Bangalore, including Nandita Subbarao and Harini Raghavan, have created an online database that anyone can use to report and share their inputs on any new dog they have found on the streets.

Says volunteer Namrata: “We ask residents to be wary of the new dogs in the area and report them to us at 9980225373 or email binam.namy@gmail.com. We have created a website for missing/found dogs across Bangalore which has happened due to unauthorised relocation, which is against the Supreme Court order, and even the BBMP cannot go against it.”

The pet lovers also caution people against the so-called “BBMP dog catchers”. “Several cases of auto or truck claiming to be from BBMP, picking up all the street dogs — this usually happens late evening or late night,” says Namrata N who is one of the persons behind creating a website and a Whatsapp Group called “Missing streeties Bangalore” to collect data on missing/found dogs. “A couple of days later, the residents find a new bunch of dogs dropped off outside their place.”

According to BBMP, the dog pickup and drop-off are done during daytime. Therefore, if you spot people doing it at night, they are probably catching and relocating the dogs illegally and unscientifically that could lead to more chaos on the streets. Another possibility is that they are catching dogs for their meat (“bow bow biryani”).”Probably someone in these areas engages some illegal operators to ‘remove the nuisance’. The catcher just ‘transfers the problem’. Nobody benefits, and he makes money by charging for every dog removed!”