Dog shelter forces UP family to put up house on sale

Lucknow, June 25 (IANS)   A shelter home with about two dozen dogs has forced the elderly neighbours to put up their house for sale.

Deeksha Trivedi, 65, a resident of Jankipuram Extension, has put up a board outside her two-storey house with the message “This house is for sale because of stray dog menace and false allegations”.

Trivedi said she moved into the house after her husband’s retirement. Since then, she and her family have been facing problems due to the 30-odd stray dogs kept in a shelter home created by her neighbour, she added.

“We had kept tenants but they left because of the menace. We have complained to the civic authorities and asked the neighbour to keep dogs away from the children of the colony but to no avail. Now, we have decided to sell our house,” she said and added that her family can take back the decision if the neighbour accepts their demand.

Other residents of the colony also complained that dogs chase locals and every vehicle passing through the locality. Children are afraid to venture out due to the problem. They also said that they are not able to sleep at night due to constant barking by dogs.

Vinay Krishna Pandey, secretary of the Resident Welfare Society of Jankipuram Extension said, “We have received several complaints from residents and collectively raised the issue with the Lucknow Municipal Corporation but no action has been taken.”

The neighbour, Shubhani Arora, 55, who runs the shelter called ‘Nurture Nature’ for the injured stray dogs, rubbished all the allegations and accused her neighbours of harassing her and poor animals.

“We have given shelter to 31 dogs, of which 20 cannot even move. They need constant assistance, help, and care. The neighbours do not support our cause and even provoke dogs. They pass derogatory remarks and have threatened my niece. We had no choice but to file an FIR a few days ago against the Trivedi family, ” she said.

LMC’s chief veterinary officer Dr Abhinav Verma said, “We issued several notices to Arora several times on the complaints of other residents, but no improvement has been seen yet. Humane Society International, an organization working with LMC, will send a community engagement team soon in the area for the redressal of the issue.”