Visible collars on street dogs to reduce accidents

Bhubaneswar: Animal Welfare Trust Ekamra, a body working for animal rights, has started a campaign, ‘Illuminating Lives’ ostensibly to make animals visible even in the dark so that accidents could be drastically reduced, according to a release.

At night due to lack of visibility it becomes extremely difficult to spot animals especially from a certain distance. Spotting the animal only when it’s too close results in sudden braking, leading to accidents. Such accidents not only harm animals severely but also injure the people involved apart from causing property loss.

At Animal Welfare Trust Ekamra, the team has been receiving numerous such cases every month, said the trust’s volunteers. And the easiest way to avoid this was by making animals visible so that the driver had enough time to react. This could be made possible by tying reflective collars on animals. Such reflective collars would pick up light from vehicles and other sources and shine.

The animal rights organisation started Phase 1 of the campaign by tying 100 such collars on dogs. A track will be kept to see how well this strategy serves its purpose after which several other phases will be carried out in which these collars will also be tied on cattle, informed the release. The team plans to gradually increase stock in order to equip maximum animals with reflective collars.