The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) continued its crackdown on stray dogs on Saturday, catching nine strays around Westin Hotel, where US President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, is scheduled to stay.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ivanka Trump will be in the city to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) on November 28.
This latest catch is part of the GHMC's ongoing bid to clear the area around the venue of the GES, of all stray animals.
“Raheja IT Park has a separate stray dog catching unit, while the operation is jointly being conducted by TS industries department and GHMC. These dogs will be rehabilitated in the animal birth control centres and released into the same area, post-sterilisation,” Hari Chandana Dasari, West Zone Municipal Commissioner told DC.
The Telangana government has been bending over backwards to give the city a facelift, which has included some controversial measures like declaring a ‘ban’ on begging, and relocating beggars to rehabilitation centres.
Another controversy erupted earlier this week, when several dogs went missing from the streets of the city.
While some alleged that the dogs had been poisoned, the municipal body dismissed the allegations, and said that this was part of routine Animal Birth Control (ABC) Program, and the timing had nothing to do with Ivanka Trump’s visit to the city.
“In a day we round up upto 15 stray dogs. Even now what we are doing is part of the ABC program. We will operate on them and then keep them in the shelters we have for five days or so. Once they have recovered, we will release them back into the same areas,” JD Wilson, Assistant Director at the Veterinary Department (Central Zone) at the GHMC had told TNM.
Meanwhile, a petition has been started against the GHMC's move, asking for the GES to be boycotted and penalized for the incident.
The online petition on Change.org, presently has over 1,700 signatures.