Cities in UP to launch drive against unlicensed pets

Residents of cities in Uttar Pradesh who keep dogs as pets without bothering to take a municipal licence, beware. If you are found out, the authorities may fine you Rs5,000 and take away your pet, to release it only after you have paid the penalty and acquired a licence.

If you don’t pay up, your pet will be sent to a dog shelter home.

With the government of Uttar Pradesh making licences mandatory for pet dogs, municipal authorities in the state capital Lucknow are moving to implement the rule first, the news agency IANS reported.

The Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) is set to begin a door-to-door survey from June 1. Eight teams of four members each have been formed by the corporation to conduct the survey.

According to the corporation’s records, there are around 4,000 pet dogs in the city. However, owners of only about 2,500 pet dogs acquired or renewed licences last year.

Similar drives will gradually be launched in other cities of India’s most populous state.

The move appears to have been at least partly triggered by persistent complaints by snooty neighbours of pet owners about dogs defecating outside their houses. Clearly, these must be owners of individual houses, because it’s not often that a dog goes and poop outside a neighbour’s flat in an apartment building.

Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) chief veterinary officer Dr Arvind Rao said, “Every pet owner is required to carry a bag to pick up the dog’s poop and dispose of it, but many do not follow the rule. We get four complaints daily from neighbours of pet owners.”

He said pets of owners who fail to pay the fine will be sent to the dog shelter home in Indira Nagar.

After the pet dog survey is completed, the LMC plans to round up stray dogs in urban areas, purportedly because of a spurt in number of cases of such animals attacking children.

It is unclear what the LMC proposes to do with those animals and how many it can house at its dog shelter. Meanwhile, stray cows continue to be a headache for farmers in many parts of the state and merrily pooping on the streets of Uttar Pradesh.