ARTISTIC impressions of a proposed pet park, which could help solve the stray dog dilemma in the kingdom, have been released for the first time.
It will be set up in the Southern Governorate within the next three years, said a government official.
The proposed facility on an area of 40,000 square metres will feature green areas and buildings with an estimated 15,000sqm set aside to accommodate around 5,000 dogs, said Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry’s Agriculture and Marine Resources vet clinics and disease control section chief, Dr Abbas Al Hayki.
Stray dogs that currently rampage through Manama, towns and villages and breed freely in the wild will be relocated, neutered, domesticated and open for adoption.
Dr Al Hayki presented these details to a meeting of the Capital Trustees’ Board, held at its Manama office.
Members of the appointed council, which meets once every two weeks, voiced concern of the slow progress of the project.
“We have been receiving so many complaints about stray dog attacks which has become a problem all over the country,” member Huda Sultan told the GDN.
“The pet park plan has been suggested many times before. Now we are told that land has been identified around Jow and Asker and work should be completed within three years.
“We feel that the project’s progress is too slow and we need to move faster. This is a major issue and a constant hazard to the public.”
The GDN in February reported how a five-month pregnant Bahraini mother was knocked off her feet by a snarling stray dog in Karranah.
Dr Al Hayki acknowledged the mounting number of complaints over stray dogs and added that there were also reports of attacks on livestock in agricultural areas too.
He noted that a committee had been formed in 2016, headed by the Municipal Affairs Under-Secretary and heads of hygiene of the four municipalities, a representative of the Interior Ministry, along with animal welfare societies, to develop a plan to tackle the issue.
“The plan had three stages – the first to hunt ferocious dogs and to get rid of them through euthanasia (from October to November 2016), the second to catch and sterilise dogs that do not pose a danger to society (from the beginning of 2017 until now – contracting with Black Gold Company) and the third was to establish a pet park that includes housing stray dogs,” he said.
“A hotline was also allocated – 38099994 – for people to report cases, as part of the plan.”
Dr Al Hayki revealed that 3,750 strays had been caught from December 2017 to August 2021.
A total of 2,138 dogs were also neutered between January 2019 and August this year.
The pet park was initially proposed as a ‘dog zoo’ in December last year. It will also include a museum highlighting the history of dogs in Bahrain, proposed by the livestock department at the Agriculture Ministry, celebrating the Saluki breed.
The GDN earlier reported that more than 900 complaints of strays were registered in the first four months of this year across all the four governorates in Bahrain.
The highest number (251) was reported in April, with 75 in the Northern Governorate, followed by 69 in Muharraq, 67 in Capital and 40 in the Southern Governorate.
The GDN also reported earlier that a new law on breeding wild animals is set to be presented to MPs before the new term next month.
The legislation, which controversially classifies a dog as a ‘dangerous animal’, was approved by MPs in March.
However, the ministry has urged Parliament public utilities and environment affairs committee to have a rethink, asserting that dogs were not ‘fierce by nature’.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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