KARACHI: Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice (Retd) Maqbool Baqar presiding over a meeting decided to launch an awareness campaign aimed at preventing cruelty towards animals, additionally, the KMC agreed to provide six vans to ACF to help catch dogs and controlling their population through neutering.

The meeting was held at CM House and was attended by Minister Tourism & Environment Arshad Wali Mohammad, Chairman P&D Shakil Mangnejo, Secretary to CM Raheem Shaikh, ACS LG Manzoor Shaikh, ACS Forest & Wildlife Najam Shah, provincial secretaries of irrigation, Agriculture, Culture, Fisheries, Commissioner Karachi, Municipal Commissioner KMC and others. WWF President Nadeem Khalid, and its members, Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation (ACF) CEO Ayesha Chundrigar and members of ACF also attended the meeting.

Rabies Control Program: Secretary Local govt Manzoor Shaikh briefing the CM on the Rabies Control Program said that it has been initiated to eliminate human deaths due to rabies by reducing the incidence of rabies cases in animals, specifically dogs, through effective preventive and control measures.

The local government dept has established 20 centers in 20 districts of the province where vaccination of dogs would be done. Under the program vaccination of 125,000 Dogs across 20 Districts would be completed by June 2025.

The local govt dept has established three anti-rabies centres in Districts- South, Center and Malir. Three vaccination centres are working in East, Central and South districts while 1072 dogs are spayed, 5436 neutralized and 8000 MDV.

ACF: ACF Foundation CEO Ayesha said that her organization was ready to support the government in neutralizing the dogs if they were provided with vans to catch dogs. At this, the CM directed the KMC Municipal Commissioner Afzal Zaidi to renovate its old six vans and hand them over to ACF for the purpose.

The CM directed Commissioner Karachi Saleem Rajput and MC KMC Afzal Zaidi to visit Safari Park, Karachi Zoo and Korangi Zoo and inspect their recommendations for improvement.

The ACF Chief told the CM that her organization set up medical camps for the treatment of donkeys being used in carts. The CM directed KMC to support the ACF in educating the donkey carts to take care of their donkeys and keep their proper treatment, in case of any injury.

The chief minister directed the Secretary Fisheries & Livestock Hafiz Siyal to activate the Veterinary hospital located at M.A Jinnah Road, near Old Radio Pakistan Building. “This hospital must set up camps to treat street animals,” he said and added he would visit the facility.