PANAJI: Following the stubbornness of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) resulting in the death of a dog at the PAWS (Panjim Animal Welfare Society) animal shelter on Monday, the PAWS officials have decided to file a complaint with the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), against the City Mayor Surendra Furtado and the CCP Commissioner Dipak Desai, for withdrawing six trained staff members in the service of the city animal shelter.
When contacted, the North Goa Collector Nila Mohanan, who is the SPCA chairperson told ‘The Navhind Times’ that such a complaint has not been filed before her yet.
“However, if such a complaint is filed before me tomorrow, then I would have to call an emergency meeting of the involved persons,” Mohanan, who is aware of the incidents at the St Inez-based animal shelter added.
It may be recalled that an altercation between the City Mayor and the honorary secretary of PAWS Angela Kazi, last week, over picking up a injured stray dog from near the house of Furtado by PAWS had resulted in the CCP transferring six of the dozen-odd staff members at the particular animal shelter. This decision had left the stray dogs at the animal shelter, including some recently operated dogs, unattended.
A city-based couple, who had volunteered to attend the animals at the shelter since past three days, told this daily that one of the stray dogs, who was earlier hit by a vehicle and subsequently operated upon, developed complications in the absence of trained staff at the shelter, probably due to the inability to feed him right medicines, and passed away Monday noon.
“In fact, we took the dog to the government veterinary hospital, Tonca and he was immediately attended by the doctor on duty, however he bled to death before our eyes,” the couple, who are animal lovers, stated, pointing out that if the trained staff existed at the shelter, the animal would have got necessary attention and survived.
“God knows how long he was bleeding before we arrived at the animal shelter today,” the couple maintained, adding that when the full staff is in service, they divide various sections at the shelter among themselves and give full attention, especially to the ailing animals.
Shaken with the death of the dog and concerned that more such deaths may follow the couple said that the PAWS will be filing a complaint with the SPCA. “We, along with the PAWS officials are personally following the matter with the North Goa Collector, who is the SPCA chairperson,” they informed.
Incidentally, few other concerned citizens from Panaji also volunteered to attend to the animals at the animal shelter on Monday. The animal shelter has at least half-a-dozen animals operated for various ailments.
With the city animal shelter devoid of its trained staff since last Friday, the services at the shelter have been largely hampered with the animals silently hoping that their attendants would return to attend them. The unfortunate part is they just cannot speak it out!