stray dogs
stray dogsTwitter [Representational Image]

Bengaluru Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun had her share of experience with the stray dog situation in the city when a growling stray charged towards her when she visited Austin Town for inspection.

The incident took place when the Mayor had gone to visit a school run by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) following reports that a four-year-old girl was attacked by a stray dog outside her house in Neelasandra on June 22.

As the officials from the Animal Husbandry Department were trying to catch the strays, one of the dogs started snarling at the Mayor and charged towards her in order to hide under her car. Mayor Mallikarjun was so scared by the incident that she refused to enter the car.

The stray gave the dog catchers a hard time as it refused to give up from under the car. The dog was finally caught by the catchers along with several other dogs but most of them managed to escape. The officials later said that all the stray dogs were vaccinated under the animal birth control program.

According to a TOI report, about 20 dogs are roaming freely in the school campus posing threat to the students. The Mayor found that a woman was illegally living inside the campus after the death of her husband, who used to work as a security guard there. She was feeding the stray dogs inside the school premises.

The Mayor has directed the officials to take necessary actions to eradicate dog menace in the area. She also asked the woman to vacate the school grounds.

Mayor Mallikarjun also visited the victim who was hospitalised following the attack and assured her family that the medical expenses will be taken up by her.

On Tuesday, a five-year-old boy was mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs at Bajjegowdanapalya in Soladevanahalli on the outskirts of Bengaluru. According to BBMP data, 1.7 lakh cases of dog bites have been registered in the last nine years.

The Animal Birth Control (ABC) scheme by the BBMP has come to a halt as several irregularities have come to the fore, including the civic body not paying the NGO running the centre, reports The News Minute.