ISLAMABAD      -          After successfully rescuing hundreds of stray-dogs at population control centre, now these dogs will be offered to the citizens for adoption under a Dogs Adoption Policy for Islamabad. The establishment of stray-dogs population control centre was the first initiative of the incumbent Chief Commissioner Islamabad and Chairman CDA Captain (Retd) Muhammad Usman Younis, who inaugurated it about two months ago. It is pertinent to mention here that he not only made it happen to operationalise first ever straydog population control centre of the country but he is still pursuing its affairs actively and remains informed about day to day progress as well. In first two months, the centre has entertained more than 300 complaints of the citizens regarding stray dogs and about 600 dogs have been rescued from different parts of the city. The total dogs shifted to the centre by the staff include 205 male dogs, 327 female dogs and 68 puppies of different breeds but most of them are either local breed or the mixed breed. The dogs reaching the centre are kept into quarantine for few days if they have the symptoms of an infectious disease and once cleared, there ultrasonography is also carried out in the centre to know their exact condition. So far, 494 dogs have successfully been neutralised through a procedure to control dogs population in Islamabad and they are still living in the shelter home as the city managers don’t have a policy to release them in open even after neutralising them under prevailing policy. However, now the city managers are working on dog adoption policy to promote responsible dog ownership at least in the federal capital. DG Civic Management of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad Rafia Haider has confirmed that the dog adoption policy is on the cards which would be of international standards. She said we are devising different protocols and procedures for giving rescued and later neutralised dogs to the citizens keeping their capacity and need into the consideration. “Adoption of a dog is quite simple but keeping it for the long period needs time and resources,” she maintained, adding, “we don’t want people to get dogs from the centre and then abandon them and this is why we are working to bring a comprehensive policy.” The dog centre to house 500 dogs at a time was established by the Directorate of Sanitation CDA, which is located in the area of Tarlai on Park Road opposite to the Pak Turk Maarif International School. In the past, the CDA/ MCI used to kill stray dogs but the Islamabad High Court stopped them from shooting and poisoning them with the direction to devise a policy to neutralise such dogs. As a first step, now the stray dogs are caught by the teams and they are being transported to the centre instead of killing them on site, where they are being neutralised through vaccination. Once neutralised, the stray dogs lose the ability to breed and they live their natural life and die their natural death.