{gallery}chintu{/gallery}
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:37:27 -0800
From: sdgsdg00@yahoo.com
Subject: Fw: {FIAPO} Get rid of your pet, or else…
To:
— On Wed, 1/26/11, Nilesh Bhanage <pawsnilesh@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Nilesh Bhanage <pawsnilesh@gmail.com>
Subject: {FIAPO} Get rid of your pet, or else…
To: fiapo@googlegroups.com
Date: Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 7:53 PM
Get rid of your pet, or else…
Navi Mumbai society cuts off essential services from pet owner’s home to coerce him into abandoning two-and-a-half-year Chintu
Yogesh Sadhwani
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News – City§id=2&contentid=2011012520110125224715589741c69d9
Posted On Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at 10:47:15 PM
A pet owner from Navi Mumbai is going through what is possibly any animal-lover’s worst nightmare.
Thirty-one-year-old Rajesh Godiya’s housing society wants him to obtain a pet licence without which they will not allow him to keep his pet mongrel Chintu. But the civic body, which is supposed to issue the licence, wants Godiya to obtain a NOC from the society first.
Worse, the society now wants him to abandon his pet and has also stopped the essential service of garbage collection from his house as punishment.
A resident of Siddhivinayak Housing Society in sector 9, Ghansoli, Godiya, brought home a stray puppy two and a half years ago.
Ever since then Chintu has stayed with his family in his studio apartment in the complex which has more than 20 buildings. “As soon I got Chintu home, I got him vaccinated.
Rajesh Godiya with Chintu in the compounds of Siddhivinayak Housing Society
Months later when I read about compulsory licences for pets in Navi Mumbai, I approached the civic body. But the officials in the local ward office made it clear that to obtain a licence I will have to get an NOC from the society first,” said Godiya.
He says that he had tried pleading with the office bearers of his society to grant him the NOC and has also written several letters to the effect. “Instead of giving me the NOC which could help me get a licence, they told me to get rid of the dog. My pleas had no effect on them,” said Godiya, who works as a manger in a multinational company in Saki Naka.
To his utter dismay in December 2010, the society held an annual general meeting and passed a resolution that no pets would be allowed in the society.
On January 16, 2011, Godiya received a notice from the society stating that he has been “illegally keeping a dog in his house” and that he would have to either get a licence from the civic body or get rid of the dog by January 26.
“The Society has taken an arbitrary decision. For over a year now I have been requesting them for an NOC so that I could get a pet licence.
Now that they know that I cannot get a licence without an NOC, they have come up with this notice,” says Godiya bitterly. He adds that there’s no way he can abandon Chintu just because society is being insensitive. “Who leaves a family member out on the streets just because people around him have a problem? There’s no way I am going to keep Chintu away from me,” said a frustrated Godiya.
Godiya also alleges that society is resorting to arm twisting tactics. “They have asked the sweeper to not collect my garbage. This is just the beginning. If I do not do as they say, they might cut off other services as well,” shrugged Godiya.
Animal welfare activists are on Godiya’s side. Plants and Animals Welfare Society (PAWS) has sent a notice to the society to withdraw its notice terming it illegal. “Even if Chintu is a stray dog, it has been living in a protected environment since it was born. Now if you leave it out, other dogs, which are territorial, will kill it. Chintu will not be able to survive in their midst even for a day,” said Nilesh Bhanage of PAWS.
He also added that the decision to not allow dogs was taken after Chintu came home. “Godiya has been asking the society to give him an NOC which they have deliberately denied. They have no legal right to ask him to get rid of the dog,” he said emphatically.
When Mumbai Mirror contacted Anandrao Tarte, secretary of the society, he claimed the decision was taken after several members complained. “We live in small houses and the dog keeps barking all day. When we go to Godiya’s house he barely opens the door and talks through the safety door.
The dog keeps barking throughout making it impossible for us to even have a conversation with the family. Moreover, Godiya takes the dog out for a walk in the evenings and the animal defecates in the open. It is only after consulting the members that we arrived at his decision,” he said.
—
Regards,
Nilesh Bhanage
+91 9920777536
www.pawsasia.org
www.freewebs.com/pawsproducts
http://www.youtube.com/user/PAWSTV1