The city Corporation has decided to take up a massive campaign to vaccinate all stray and pet dogs to address the menace of aggressive and rabid dogs.
Following a meeting of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) monitoring committee on Tuesday and taking experts’ opinions into account, the civic body will organise a three-day special drive from September 18 to vaccinate pet dogs that have not got their shots in the past one year.
Pet dog vaccination was held as a matter of routine, but as part of the first phase of the special campaign, the vaccination for pet dogs will be administered from 7 a.m. to 12 noon in 15 veterinary hospitals under the Corporation. As many as 10,000 doses of the vaccine will be procured, Mayor Arya Rajendran said at a press conference here on Thursday.
Licence distribution for pet dogs would also be held the same day as part of the campaign. If certficates of dogs that have already been vaccinated are produced, licence would be issued to them on payment of fee. “All residents should ensure that their pet dogs have been vaccinated and have a licence.”
Action would be taken against dog owners who get their pets vaccinated but do not take a licence.
Stray dogs too would be vaccinated. Four teams, each comprising two dog-catchers and one veterinarian, would cover all 100 wards of the city Corporation from September 25 to November 1 to vaccinate stray dogs, the Mayor said.
One team would cover three wards each, and each would visit all 100 wards since it may not be possible to vaccinate all stray dogs in a ward the first time itself. A route map for the stray dog vaccination campaign too has been prepared. Volunteers would held the teams.
The ABC committee decided that vaccinated stray dogs would have visible markings – spray paint in red, yellow, and green - that would make it possible to identify its vaccination status.
Adoption camps would also be organised by the civic body.
Since the last stray dog census was held in 2016, a census to identify their current numbers would be taken up urgently, Ms. Rajendran said. The 2016 census had identified nearly 9,500 dogs in the city limits.
A meeting of people who feed stray dogs would be held to urge them to refrain from feeding dogs near hospitals, schools, places of worship, and other crowded places.
Sterilisation of stray dogs would resume at the city Corporation’s facility at Vandithadam after renovation works to the tune of ₹18 lakh are completed at the earliest, the Mayor said.
The Corporation was taking steps to set up a ₹4-crore ABC hospital at Vandithadam too, she said.
The Corporation is setting up people’s committees in all wards and will hold discussions with experts on setting up ward-level dog shelters where violent dogs or those with health problems could be housed. The support of non-governmental organisations would be sought. Nearly 15,000 dogs had been sterilised under the ABC so far, with 566 sterlised this financial year, she said.
Checks would be held by health squads to identify people who dumped waste, especially slaughter waste, in public places and stringent action taken against them. Pet shops too would be inspected.
