Dogs and humans share unique relationships ranging from companionship to conflicts. After twenty years of implementation of Animal Birth Control (Dogs) rule, 2001 (refereed referred henceforth as ABC rule, 2001) in India, stray dog population management (DPM) issue is yet to be fully addressed. The 3(3) of ABC rule, 2001 states that, ''the street dogs shall be sterilized and immunized by participation of animal welfare organisationsorganizations, private individuals and the local authority.''[6]Project Meher was an initiative by a group of animal lovers under MAW foundation in Thane, Maharashtra to promote responsible community dog care and management.We used ICAM’s humane dog population management guidance 2019- COM-B model of behaviour where animal feeders also take the responsibility of vaccinating and sterilisingsterilizing the street dogs they are routinely feeding. The model was slightly tweaked for implementation in a regional scenario where individual dog feeders, generally women of various age groups, take the stray dog to a private veterinary practitioner for treatment.Therefore, our three key stakeholders were- community dogs (stray dogs who are routinely fed by a caregiver), Caregivers (community dog feeders) and private veterinary practitioners. MAW foundation vaccinated the community dogs with reference to WSAVAs vaccination protocol for Asian small animal practitioners. The MAW foundation's veterinarian acted as a 'community health volunteer' as per the COM-B model who convinced the caregiver about the benefits of vaccinating and sterilisingsterilizing the stray dogs on their dog, family and neighbourhood.[1] Project Meher directed the non-sterilisedsterilized dogs for sterilisationsterilization at a registered veterinary facility permitted to perform animal birth control under local municipal corporations directives.

Keywords: Indian stray dogs, community dogs and cats, preventive care