Bhubaneswar: Following the recent dog-biting incident, denizens of Odisha capital will now have to seek the permission of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to keep a pet at home.
“Prior permission will be required for adopting pets. They have to furnish a declaration for keeping pets of any breed and certify that they are taking proper care of them. A veterinary doctor will have to certify whether the dog has been vaccinated or not. This apart, existing pet owners will also need to go for registration of their dogs. They have to sign an undertaking that their pet will not harm other people,” BMC commissioner Vijay Kulange told the media on Friday.
Detailed guidelines will be released by next week, he informed.
He added that owners should not allow pets to defecate in the open, especially in public places.
According to sources, the guidelines will have provisions for people having dogs and cows as pets to voluntarily share information about the animals with the BMC and ensure that they have a proper place to keep them.
The civic body would frame the norms considering the instructions of the Animal Welfare Board in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Cochin, the sources added.
Notably, an American Akita dog was banished from a posh locality within the city after it bit an eight-year-old boy on November 6. He had sustained serious injuries and was in ICU for a few days.
