Pet parents rejoice as the non-responsive BMC online portal for registration of pets and renewal of pet licenses is working after the Free Press Journal reported on Friday 26 May 2022 the challenges for pet owners.
Several pet parents were miffed with BMC for making online pet registration compulsory when the BMC online portal was unresponsive and local civic officials unable to provide any solution for registering and renewal of pet licenses. A technical glitch had rendered the BMC portal unresponsive for pet parents to register their four-legged pets as mandated by the civic rules.
Environment minister Aditya Thackeray responding to the complaint about the non-functional BMC portal had tweeted tagging BMC "We will get it checked" after a pet parent had highlighted the problem on Twitter “The website that registers pets is faulty.” tagging the Mumbai Guardian Minister Aaditya Thackeray.
“I had also tweeted about the problem tagging Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray along with the BMC and the story also appeared in Free Press Journal. The minister responded and so did BMC. The problem was solved and was able to register my pets. I guess everyone now will be able to do so as the bug seems to have been attended to” said media professional S Ramachandran relieved that his pets are now registered.
The rising cases of dog bites and diseases spread by animals had led BMC to issue guidelines for pets in Mumbai. The guidelines mandated giving rabies and leptospirosis vaccines to pets and registering all pets on the BMC portal for a fee to get a pet license. The civic body started with a charge of Rs 105 for providing a pet license and levied Rs 100 for its renewal every year which was hiked to Rs 700 this year.
The high number of pets abandoned during the coronavirus pandemic prompted the BMC to revise its guidelines for pet owners with a provision for annual renewal of licenses to ensure that pets receive their annual vaccinations regularly.
Under section 191(A) of the BMC Act, it is mandatory for pet parents to obtain a license for the purpose of placing accountability in case a pet dog is found to cause a nuisance in a building society or if it bites someone.
“Owing to the rising cases of dog bites in recent years, the BMC health department has decided to get stricter with the implementation of norms. The Act has a provision that a dog can be seized if the owner fails to obtain a license or renew it every year,” explaining the need for the legal provision, a senior BMC health official had said.
The civic authorities have also stepped up their stray dog sterilisation program to curb the rising population of stray dogs in Mumbai and prevent human-canine conflicts and dog bite cases.
Stray Dog Sterilisation:-
1. Jan 2020- Dec 2020 - 14,407 (Avg 1,200)
2. Jan 2021- Dec 2021 - 17,534 (Avg 1,461)
3. Jan 2022 - 1,225
Dog Bites:-
1. Jan 2020- Dec 2020 - 59,791
2. Jan 2021- Nov 2021 - 60,405
