bhubaneswar faced with rising dog bite cases in the city the bhubaneswar municipal corporation bmc on saturday in a kneejerk reaction passed new laws that could see dog owners coughing up to rs 10000 as fine for any dog bite complaintsunder the new bmc registration and proper control of dogs bylaws 2023 to regulate keeping and rearing of pet dogs dog owners will be penalised for open defecation abandoning dogs carcasses thrown in open areas among other violations all pet dogs have to be registered by paying a fee of rs 500the bmc mayor sulochana das said the dog regulation was necessary both for the people and the animalwe had made public the draft regulation many welfare groups and animal lovers went through them and suggested changes it was also thoroughly reviewed by the corporators there is a notion that the bylaw will be taxing for dog lovers and keepers it is not so the mayor explainedbylaws to check cruelty to animalswith rising instances of pet dogs going out of control the bmc brought the regulation but there are other provisions that the civic body thinks can help better upkeep of the pets like vaccination and mandatory use of collar the regulation the civic body said will also help check cruelty to animals on an average bhubaneswarbased capital hospital record about 10 dog bite cases daily at the emergencycasualty most of the citys dog bite cases come to capital the private hospitals here also treat dog bite cases but the number is very few said l d sahu director of the hospital ramesh jena bmc deputy commissioner said suggestions from all stakeholders were incorporated in the final bylaw with some provision of draft bylaw getting written off the bylaws encompass every aspect of dogkeeping including burial process upon its death and responsibility of owners jena said animal lovers have slammed the move describing the rs 10000 fine as a wrong decision it is a wrong decision to have a bylaw that imposes penalty of up to rs 10000 on owners for dog bite cases which are extremely rare events said brajesh mohanty a dog lover in satya nagar but jena clarified that the penalty provision of up to rs 10000 is based on nature of violation and it may be rs 500 and rs 10000 also people shouldnt misconstrue that they have to cough up rs 10000 in each dog bite case it will be seen how the owner behaved that led to the bite and whether the dog was showing aggressive sign and the owner ignored them he said