Shillong Municipal Board likely to Set Up Dog Shelter For Stray Dogs

A Reporter

SHILLONG: The CEO of Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) BS Sohliya informed that the Board is contemplating the idea of setting up a dog shelter in the city with an objective to reduce the menace of stray dogs roaming the streets of Shillong and posing a danger to the local populace.

Speaking to The Sentinel, Sohliya said, “A committee on stray animals have already been set up in which the Deputy Commissioner is the chairman and this idea will also be pitched in the next committee meeting.”

It may be reminded that earlier, as per reports received from Pasture Institute Shillong, there had been more than 4000 cases of dog bites related incident since the 2017.

He informed that earlier to curb the menace of stray dogs in the 80s and 90s the Municipal Board use to have licenced dog shooters; however, after the Supreme Court had banned the killing of such animals this was stopped.

When asked on the present methods used by the Board to tackle the problem of stray dogs in the city, he said, “Now whenever we receive complaints from the public we would dispatch our people to the area and capture the dogs and later the dogs are handed over to an organization looking after the welfare of the dogs and are later set up for adoption.”

He also said that during the mating season they would capture the female from the group of stray dogs and later after the season is over, the dog will be relocated back to the same place. “The increase of stray dogs in the city is also because some dog owners would abandon their dogs,” he said.