In yet another incident of stray attack, a thirteen-year-old girl was bitten by a pack of four dogs in GH-7, a high rise in Crossings Republik on Tuesday. She was bitten on her right hip.
The incident happened in the open area of Tower no 5 when the girl was going for her tuition classes at around 4 pm.
"Without any provocation, three to four stray dogs who were sitting in the park attacked the girl as soon as they saw her. They pinned her to the ground and bit her on the hip. A security guard overheard the girl screaming and rescued her from the dogs," told Rohit Chaudhary, president of society's RWA and one of the eyewitnesses to the incident.
For months now, dog bite incidents are on the rise in the society.
The victim’s father, Amitava Ghosh, is vice president of the society's RWA.
Talking to City Spidey, Ghosh said that his daughter is traumatized after the incident. "She is terrified. She keeps shivering and crying whole day,” he said. “As a father and as an RWA office bearer, I feel helpless. If I can’t protect my own child from these horrific attacks, how am I supposed to ensure safety of the rest of the residents.”
Chaudhary said that the residents have been facing terror of stray dogs for a long time now as every other week some incident like this is reported. "These attacks happen so frequently that parents have stopped their kids from playing in the ground," he added.
In November 2018, a seven-year-old boy of GH-7 was attacked twice within a span of three days by a stray dog. In the first incident, the boy escaped with deep scratches on his back but suffered a grade 3 bite on his thighs the second time.
Chaudhary blamed the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) for the mess. "After each incident, we call the agency appointed by GMC but first they come late. Second, they sterilize and vaccinate a few dogs leaving many others. But the vaccination and sterilization aren’t able to control such incidents,” he complained.
“More than 80 stray dogs are currently living in the society We can't even evict them as that is against the law. What shall we do then? We can’t let our children suffer,” Chaudhary said.
However, Sumedha Iyer, head of People For Animals (PFA) in Ghaziabad refuted these estimates. She claimed the count of treated dogs are over 35. "The problem is that their perimeter is not fully guarded. There is an open path from the society that goes towards the market and acts as a free way for the dogs from outside to enter,” she said.
PFA is a nodal agency appointed by GMC for sterilisation and vaccination of stray dogs.
“There are many points from where outside dogs can enter the society. All our efforts go vain if they aren’t able to secure their boundaries.” she added.
The RWA, however, refuted this and claimed that after the November incident, the way to market was separated by a boundary. “All the gates are now being guarded and the gaps on the boundary have been filled,” said both Ghosh and Chaudhary.
Iyer said that she will send a team to catch the ferocious dog and would bring the stray to treatment center of the agency.
