GT Ambe, joint executive health officer in-charge o f pet licencing, said, “We have 12 junior overseers (JO) whose work is to supervise pet licencing. However, for long, they have been busy serving backlogs in other departments including sterilization and catching stray dogs. We now want to focus on licensing, and have given our JOs a target of at least five dogs per day, to begin with.”
Ambe added that instead of calling the pet owners to visit their offices, he has asked the JOs to visit homes to license pets. “So far, public response for licensing has been poor but we are looking for it to pick up now,” he said.
Activists have pointed out that proper licensing of pets should be made mandatory because it helps make the city safer for the general public as only vaccinated dogs can be licensed. Besides, once pet dogs are licensed, the BMC will have a clearer picture of the major stray dog problem in the city, thereby facilitating the processes of catching, sterilizing and vaccinating stray dogs, they said.
Abodh Aras of Welfare for Stray Dogs had earlier even stated that a countrywide study done a few years ago indicated that unvaccinated pets contribute largely to the spread of rabies in the country. Activists also believe that issuing licenses will help BMC follow the poopscoop law more diligently.
Recently, a BMC response to an RTI query submitted by Newsline had revealed that only 4,204 dogs in the city were licensed. The BMC’s dog census done from October 2007-January 2008 states that Mumbai has 26,900 pet dogs.
Not licensing pet dogs is a violation of the section 191 B of the BMC Act, 1888.
In fact, the BMC also seems to be breaking the law by not issuing dog tags to pet owners anymore. The act states that the BMC must provide the owner of a pet dog with a “number ticket, the number of which shall be specified in the license”. Also that the owner “shall at all times cause the said number ticket to be kept attached to the collar or suspended under the neck of the dog”. Strict penalties are specified for unlicensed or licensed dogs without dog tags. The act gives the “police or any officer authorized by the commissioner” the authority to detain such dogs till the tax is paid.
Ambe pointed out that the department had stopped issuing tags “for the past five to six years”. “I am looking into the exact reason why dog tags were discontinued. Tags are a good way of identifying pet dogs, and if feasible, we will start issuing them again,” he said.