💬 Good news for once, a dog vaccination camp in our area

Most threads about stray dogs here are complaints, so I wanted to share something good for a change. Last week a vaccination and sterilisation camp was held near the community ground in our area. A mobile van was parked there for 3 days, and the municipal team ran it very neatly. They gave out tokens, so there was no pushing and no shouting, and the line moved fast. Every dog that was vaccinated got a small ear tag, which I thought was a clever idea. Now you can see at a glance which ones are done and which ones still need to be brought in. The vets were calm, even with a nervous dog who tried to bite the rope twice. I stood there for almost an hour and not one person lost their temper, which is rare in Hyderabad. I talked to a lady who was volunteering at the table. She said it's part of a bigger plan. It moves from one zone to another in turns, and areas with more dog complaints get a turn earlier. I can't say if that is true everywhere, I'm only telling you what she told me. She also said residents can ask the ward office when the van is coming to their area. My wish is that it becomes regular, maybe every 6 months, instead of one time. Dogs that are missed or too young one time are still out on the street the next time. Feeding the same dogs without any care isn't a solution either, but that's a separate argument. If the van comes to your area, please take the dogs near your building. It works only if most get covered.

Darshan's idea of volunteering during the camp is one I hadn't thought of at all.

Something that might quietly undo a lot of this progress is how much random feeding still happens around our area, well meaning but it keeps attracting new strays into the same zones faster than the sterilisation drive can keep up with covering them. Feels like feeding practices and vaccination drives need to be talked about together rather than as two completely separate topics.

Ended up volunteering for a couple of hours during a similar drive near my area, mostly just helping calm nervous dogs while the vet worked and keeping the token line organized. Rewarding in a way I did not expect going in, and the actual team seemed to appreciate the extra hands since they were clearly stretched thin covering the whole area alone otherwise.

After reading this I rang our ward office, because we haven't had a camp in our block yet.

I'm in Houston now, but my mother in Hyderabad always assumed somebody else would bring the lane dogs. After reading this I called her, and she took 2 dogs from near the house to the van. She said it took 20 minutes, and the vet was kind to both of them.

I agree about a regular schedule, because one round always misses some dogs. Some are pregnant, some are too young, and some just aren't around that particular week.

Areas with more complaints getting the van earlier? Useful to know. Our colony should start complaining then.

Had almost the same experience near our colony a couple of months back, surprised by how organized it was compared to what I expected going in.