94,000 stray dogs in Mumbai, 3 dog shelters planned

Mumbai: State industries minister Uday Samant told the legislature that Maharashtra has 14.8 lakh stray dogs and that Mumbai had 94,000 according to a survey. He also said that three dog shelters will be provided for the city in the next six months.He also said that across the state in 2025, 3.2 lakh stray dogs had been vaccinated and 4.8 lakh had been vaccinated. He also said that the municipal corporations of Mumbai, Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Nasik and KDMC had decided to set up Animal Birth Control Shelters. Samant said that money from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund could also be used to tackle the stray dog issue and that all municipal corporations had been directed to implement the directives of the Supreme Court on the issue.The issue was raised in the state assembly by Shiv Sena MLA Arjun Khotkar who said that in Jalna as many as 93 people had been bitten by stray dogs in Jalna in the span of week. “Packs of stray dogs need to be tackled urgently. Several young children have been killed by such packs,” said Khotkar. Congress MLA Amin Patel asked when the animal shelters which had earlier been announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, would come up.

“I had visited Nair Hospital and saw 7 dogs in the lobby,” said Patel.