Ranchi, Feb. 9: Do you love your pet? What if it was taken away?

More than 4,000 owners of pet dogs could get their pets confiscated, if they fail to comply with the Ranchi Municipal Corporation’s (RMC’s) directive to pet owners to get their dogs registered by March 31, 2007.

However, “lack of awareness” has prevented pet owners from doing the needful, said a pet owner in the city today.

Chief executive officer of a local NGO — Hope and Animal — Praveen Ohal warned that owners, who do not get their pets registered, might get into serious trouble if neighbours complain.

“In case of such a complaint, RMC would be free to confiscate unregistered pets, who prove to be a nuisance,” Ohal said.

Health officer of RMC Rekha Rani Singh told The Telegraph that registration of pets is mandatory all over the country, including Ranchi.

However, she conceded that this is the first time that the RMC has decided to ensure that all pets are registered by the end of the current fiscal.

“For the time being, registration of pets is restricted to dogs only. Necessary documentation is being readied to cover cows in the next phase, though it is likely to take some time before RMC can begin to implement the scheme. There are very few people with pet cats. At present, we are only registering dogs,” said Singh.

She said the procedure for registration of pet dogs is quite simple.

A pet owner has to merely fill write an application on a plain paper stating the number and pedigree of the pet dog and request the RMC to register it.

Such an application should be addressed to either the administrator, or the health officer of RMC.

“The cost of registration, per pet dog, has been fixed at Rs 100 per year, renewable annually,” Singh added.

Of this, Hope and Animal is entitled to Rs 15 per registration.

Meanwhile, Ohal said so far the response of pet owners to this rule has been discouraging.

“The pet owners’ response in getting their pets registered has been dismal. At Ranchi, people generally prefer dogs. There is no known case of people keeping monkeys or other animals as pets in Ranchi,” Ohal said.

She added that the money realised from registration of dogs is to be utilised in the management of stray dogs, for they “often prove dangerous after dusk”.

RMC does not have funds to undertake sterilisation of stray dogs — which number around 30,000 to 40,000 in Ranchi alone according to estimates, said an official of RMC.

RMC, which is already short-staffed, cannot afford the money to campaign for the project.

The confiscated dogs might find a shelter in the new facility home of Hope and Animal built at Khunti, said the official.