New WVS centre in Usgao to boost dog sterilisation drive

PANAJI
WVS Goa will construct a new sterilisation and training centre with its own resources at Usgao, providing an additional capacity of 20,000 sterilisations per year.
Recognising that dogs need to be sterilised at double the rate and that an aggressive push is required to reduce the community dog population as per existing laws, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in September had announced giving a four-acre land parcel to WVS Goa on a long-term lease.
“Not only will this new WVS centre be instrumental in controlling the community dog population in Goa, but it will also be used to train hundreds of veterinary surgeons and vet assistants to conduct sterilisation surgeries all over India,” said Dr Stacy Sequeira, Director of WVS, Goa.
In a press note, the Goa Animal Federation (GAF) stated that proactive government action at all levels over the years has ensured that Goa has remained rabies-controlled since 2018, with 99.99% of community dogs being friendly towards humans.
“Goa has been canine rabies-controlled since 2021. Since September 2017, Goa has reported no human deaths from rabies, with a 10-fold reduction in canine rabies. Operational, epidemiological, and administrative lessons learnt in Goa are now being applied in rabies control initiatives in other states in India,” stated GAF.
“Goa’s rabies programme is formally led and funded by the State government, working in close partnership with Mission Rabies, an international charity that has been working in rabies-endemic areas of Asia and Africa since 2013.
“Achieving ‘rabies controlled’ status took around eight years, starting with a small-scale pilot initiative by Mission Rabies to vaccinate 5,000 dogs, growing to a State-wide programme launched in 2015, and currently vaccinating up to 100,000 dogs annually on the streets of Goa.
“Goa, a smaller State, has an existing capacity to sterilise 15,000 dogs per year that has been created by NGOs.”
The GAF stated that Goa NGOs like WVS Goa have, in a proactive initiative, offered their services to the government to educate schoolchildren and government officials handling the community dog issue.
“Goa has set an example for the rest of India to follow in community dog management. Nowhere in the whole of India is it better implemented than in Panaji, the capital of Goa. A proactive approach by the City Corporation of Panjim (CCP) in sterilising and vaccinating dogs, and a robust feeder network, ensured that Panaji has become a model city with over 90% sterilisation rate and zero reported dog bite cases, according to CCP Mayor Rohit Monserrate,” the GAF added.