Every day, while going to classes or workplaces, we meet countless tail-wagging pups who accompany us for a short while, melt our hearts by accepting biscuits, or just watch us from a little distance. And for years, these street dwellers have raised the same uncomfortable question: “What should we actually do about them?”

Although the instinctive answer is capturing and relocating them to the outskirts of the town, or to a forest area, this is neither humane nor an evidence-backed solution. The most trusted and cruelty-free option proven to work is CNVR: Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return.

Nahid Islam Bristy, the administrator of Furry Friends Foundation, has seen why relocating strays does more harm than good.

“Dogs are territorial creatures,” she explains. “When you remove a group of them from an area, you don’t get a space; instead, you leave behind an area with abundant food waste and no one to defend it. Within weeks, new canines move in from neighbouring territories, often faster and in greater numbers.”

Moreover, relocated dogs keep breeding wherever they are. So, you have not tackled the core issue of uncontrolled reproduction at all, but rather pushed it out of sight for a while.

Bristy mentions that a female dog can reproduce six to eight puppies with each pregnancy. That means a single unneutered female can theoretically be responsible for dozens of offspring within just a couple of years. This relentless breeding cycle also drives disease transmission, most notably Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour (TVT). She clarifies that communities with strong spay or neuter coverage tend to see TVT cases decline prominently.

Image

“But unfortunately, to this day, CNVR is often viewed as someone else’s responsibility, specifically that of NGO’s,” sighs Bristy. “City corporations often see animal management as a welfare cause rather than a core public health responsibility, even though rabies control and population stability directly affect every resident, and the expectation shifts onto the volunteers.”

It has not been long since the incident at Japan Garden City in Dhaka, where homeless cats and dogs were poisoned. It was a stark warning of what unchecked cruelty towards street animals looks like when a community abandons humane options altogether, and underscores the urgent need for CNVR; it showed how badly communities need city-backed sterilisation programs so that no one is ever able to claim killing was the only option, when it never was.

Image

“However, the young generation are growing up far more exposed to animal welfare conversations than previous generations,” Bristy comments thoughtfully. “This generation is also more willing to act on that awareness: feeding local pawed beings, reporting injured or sick animals, volunteering at sterilisation drives, or simply pushing back when they see cruelty or careless relocation happening around them.”

In the end, CNVR needs consistency (at least 70 per cent or more sterilisation) to meaningfully suppress growth, and even one contribution or one conversation can help create a safer future for both street dogs and communities they live in.