BMC partners with PFA for better animal welfare

Bhubaneswar: The animal welfare scenario in the city not only involves birth control of dogs alone, but also treating the injured, diseased and the animals lying without care.

In order to keep the animals in good health, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) in association with People for Animals (PFA) is doing a good job at the rehabilitation-cum-treatment centre at Ranasinghpur near AIIMS.

The report card of the centre has also become inspiring as more than 70 bulls and more than 400 dogs suffering from different problems are given timely treatment and if needed given rehabilitation there at the facility. The list of benefitted animals does also include cats, monkeys, mongoose, squirrels and owl.

In-charge of the centre Amulya Nayak, has become a popular figure for helping out animal lovers and also helping BMC, people from OUAT and the Veterinary Poly Clinic in Saheed Nagar to manage the animal care.

“I am happy that BMC authorities and especially additional commissioner Alok Kumar Kar are showing interest in the animal welfare measures and BMC is helping us in logistics like the bull and cattle transport vehicle and providing other items for cleaning and purifying the premises at Ransinghpur,” says Nayak.

After treatment of the bulls if there is any problem in the animal and the leg is to be amputed due to foot and mouth diseases spread or the bull develops paralysis due to neurological disorder etc, then the animals are kept inside the facility for their rehabilitation. In case of dogs the formulae is also applied. Currently seven bulls and 12 dogs are staying inside the centre.

Interestingly, Amulya is managing the treatment with the help of two others, i.e. Maguni and Loknath and takes the help of volunteers when lifting of bulls is needed. “We are managing our salaries from donations, so keeping more people would not help,” explains Amulya.

Apart from injured animals, the Ranasinghpur centre of BMC-PFA is also dealing with stray animals and after several days of stay kittens, cats are also getting the love of people as they come forward and adopt them.

“Recently we rescued a Persian cat and after treatment I made a post through my Facebook page that the cats needs a loving person to be adopted. Interestingly on August 21 Upadhi Upasana came and adopted the animal. In fact, we never tried to deal our rescued animals in commercial terms as the above cat could have fetched around Rs 20,000 in the market,” said Amulya.

The centre also receives kitten from different people, who do not want them in their homes. “We keep them inside our facility, feed them regularly and when people get to know about them from my FB posting, they come forward and adopt. On August 20 last month Kalinga K. Jena adopted a kitten after seeing the posting on FB,” Amulya added.

Currently two bulls are under treatment process inside the facility as they were brutally attacked with acid in Jagatsinghpur. “Now people are also calling from places outside Bhubaneswar and we happily help them out. Our primary aim is to help the animals in distress. Anyone can contact me on my number 98610-36970,” says Amulya.

BMC Additional Commissioner Alok Kumar Kar, who is in-charge of Animal Birth Control (ABC) and animal welfare programmes in BMC said “the PFA team under Amulya is doing a good job. They have also developed expertise to catch mad dogs and bulls and we are really thankful to them for that unique service.”

The senior BMC official also added “if they give an offer to BMC to have the second ABC centre for sterilizing dogs inside their Ransinghpur campus, then BMC will definitely come forward and do the needful as per provisions.”

It can be mentioned here that the ABC programme of BMC is currently being managed through the Veterinary Polyclinic in Saheed Nagar.