Obhoyaronno - Bangladesh Animal Welfare Foundation has been ordered to shift dogs from its facility as the government has decided to establish a 3,000-bed coronavirus hospital in that place.
Obhoyaronno was using the facility inside Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) market at Mohakhali to administer its spay-neuter program as well as the last home for street animals since 2016 with DNCC’s permission.
The founder and chairman of the organization, Rubaiya Ahmad, stated that on Thursday some people from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) forcibly entered Obhoyaronno's premises and started making alterations to the facility.
According to Rubaiya Ahmad, government officials are forcing them to move out without offering any alternative venue. She said the move could disrupt the lives of many stray animals as well as 30 dogs currently undergoing treatment in the facility.
She also claimed that the relevant authorities were showing a “negative public perception of dogs” as a reason to move them, despite no evidence of dogs spreading or carrying Covid-19.
When contacted on the matter, the DGHS authorities suggested that the issue be raised with the Health Engineering department as it was under the latter’s jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, the DNCC authorities said that they were trying to shift Obhoyaronno through mutual negotiations.
Rubaiya Ahmad told Dhaka Tribune: “As per our lawyer’s instructions, we will lodge a general diary out of concern for our security.”
“From this centre, we manage Dhaka city’s stray dog population as part of the World Health Organization-recommended rabies prevention program, which includes the vaccination and sterilization of street dogs,” she said.
Since 2012, the facility has provided services to over 18,000 dogs in the capital, which has been a rabies-free city for several years now, she stated.
“We are being asked to abandon a facility which took us 10 years and $100,000 of foreign aid to build as well as shut down the only veterinary clinic which we know of that is still open for pet-related emergencies under this lockdown,” she said.
Stating that they were not against building a hospital in the compound, she said: “Being made to move without any proper notice or an alternative venue would mean a massive financial and social loss for us as well as our community.”
“This is a government facility which had been lying vacant for several years and was lent to Obhoyaronno by DNCC as part of an agreement with funding from Humane Society International (US) and Dogs Trust International (UK),” she added.
Rubaiya Ahmad noted that Mayor Atiqul had been very supportive of her work all along.
Dr Md Aminul Hasan, Director (Hospital) of DGHS, told Dhaka Tribune that eviction and relocation of Obhoyaronno falls under the Health Engineering Department’s jurisdiction.
“The authorities concerned will rehabilitate Obhoyaronno at a suitable place,” he said.
Refuting Rubaiya’s allegation, Brig Gen Mohammad Mominur Rahman Mamun, chief health officer of DNCC, told Dhaka Tribune that neither the DGHS nor the DNCC had forced the facility to leave.
The DGHS planned to turn the DNCC market building into a hospital for Covid-19 patients but was careful that humans and animals were not kept together, he said.
Mamun said: “Obhoyaronno is not being evicted forcibly. We are thinking of shifting the dogs only, not the clinical equipment, as some have opposed keeping dogs in the same place where people will be treated for Covid-19.
That is why we are trying to shift the dogs to a proper place.”
When asked where Obhoyaronno would be shifted, the Chief Health Officer of DNCC said: “I went there with the city corporation’s veterinary officer today (Thursday), but failed to find any suitable place nearby for those animals.
"We will find a suitable location in association with Obhoyaronno authorities as to where the dogs will be kept, as per DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam’s instructions," he added.
Earlier, the government planned to set up a 3000-bed corona hospital at Mohakhali DNCC market to tackle the Covid-19 crisis in the country.
The construction work of the DNCC market was completed in 2013 at a cost of Tk70 crore, but the structure was left abandoned due to protests from the businessmen of Karwan Bazar.