The meeting has been called upon after rising incidents of attacks and bites on the residents by stray dogs living in the society.
To address the ongoing outrage over stray dogs, the residents will hold a meeting at Amrapali Village on Sunday. They will try to find a solution to the conflict over stray dogs. People have been divided on whether to allow stray dogs inside the society or not.
The meeting has been called upon after rising incidents of attacks and bites on the residents by stray dogs living in the society. “We have to find a solution. The residents are aggrieved with the prevailing situation,” said Deepak Kumar, president of RWA of the society.
For last one week, multiple incidents of dog bites and attacks have been reported from the society. On Wednesday, three women and a six-year-old child was bitten by stray dogs inside the society.
“The situation is very grim. Women have stopped stepping out alone. The parents are advising their children to not play outside. Everyone has panicked,” Kumar said.
Kumar also said that the RWA requested multiple times to People For Animals (PFA), a nodal agency appointed by Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC), to look after stray animals in the city, for its solution but nothing concrete came out.
“They are required to befriend the strays and keep their tummy full. This will help in reducing the attacks. We cannot relocate them. Our hands are tied lay law,” he said.
As per guidelines of Supreme Court of India and Animal Welfare Board of India, the relocation of dogs from their natural territory is illegal and if deem necessary, then must be done, observed and supervised by municipal corporation or agency appointed by it.
The issue of man-dog conflict is not new to the society. Few months ago, the society faced a controversy when its residents tried to relocate dogs on their own, in violation to the SC and AWBI guidelines.
In February, an FIR was lodged on the RWA over an allegation of killing a stray dog. The FIR was lodged by PFA after a stray dog got injured and later died during his forceful relocation by the residents of the society.
The residents had called a private dog vehicle to catch stray dogs from the society. The vehicle managed to catch three dogs but in the meantime, volunteers from People For Animals came and rescued all the dogs caught.
Meanwhile, PFA people spotted an injured dog lying on the side of the road. They brought the injured dog for the treatment but the dog succumbed to the injury. PFA had claimed that the dogs were brutally beaten in order to catch them, which RWA and majority of residents had refused. However, they accepted that they called a van to catch the dogs.
