People start protecting neighbourhood stray dogs

The two Dhaka city corporations have recently decided to relocate the stray dogs from the city streets, in a bid to make the city safer for its dwellers.

But when the authorities started to execute the plan, the pet lovers, including a number of animal welfare organisations, protested against the move and staged a massive demonstration in the city.

Amid widespread criticism from different corners, the authorities held a meeting with the protesters on Tuesday and asked them to adopt the street dogs and make them easily identifiable.

Responding to the call, the pet lovers came forward and started to put green collars on the dogs to mark them as adopted ones. 

We now see a noticeable increase in the number of dogs with green collars on the city streets.

But generally, the number of stray dogs have significantly decreased as the city corporations have already relocated a good number of dogs from the city.

While visiting Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi and Dhaka University areas on Thursday afternoon, very few dogs were seen in different streets and lanes. Also, very few of them had green collars on.

Normally, the Central Shaheed Minar area is filled with a good number of stray dogs. But on Thursday afternoon, the number of dogs was comparatively few. Among the few dogs spotted in the vicinity, none wore green collars.

There were some dogs at TSC premises, but few were seen with green collars. Aside from other visitors, Dhaka University students feed the dogs in the campus area.

Only two days have elapsed since the authorities made the call to adopt stray dogs. It is expected that more vaccinated dogs in green collars will be seen in the city streets in due course.