The Management of the BMICH refutes the false claims circulating on social media that they are eradicating stray dogs roaming in its premises, by poisoning them.
“These claims are completely untrue,” a media release from the BMICH stated.
Excerpts of the release:
“We give below the true facts:
* A large number of stray dogs find their way into the BMICH premises and cause many problems to our customers, visitors and staff. Our customers were attacked by these dogs on four or five occasions.
* We have received numerous complaints from parents of students who attend various classes in our buildings. They state that they feel unsafe with the large number of stray dogs on our premises.
* Before the dogs began to attack our customers and staff, we undertook a joint program with Embark to vaccinate and sterilize the dogs found in our compound, as well as take away the puppies.
However, an increasing number of dogs began to appear on our premises. Under these circumstances we had no other choice but to have them relocated out of the BMICH premises.
We are aware that this smear campaign is being carried out by a few persons, who go around Colombo feeding stray dogs, who have barged into the BMICH premises, many times, purportedly to feed the stray dogs. The BMICH Police Unit informed them that they had entered in an unauthorised manner without permission, and were trespassing on our premises. They were warned and sent away.
These persons have clearly used photos taken elsewhere, for their smear campaign We inform those who forcibly enter our premises to feed the stray dogs therein, if they are true dog-lovers, to take away these dogs for adoption.
We strongly request the people carrying out this smear campaign to be more responsible and civic conscious, not only towards stray dogs but also to our citizens,” the statement further added.