Feeding spots will be fixed for stray dogs in all wards based on guidelines issued by the Corporation, Health Standing Committee chairperson Jameela Sreedharan has said.
In a special council meeting held on Saturday to discuss the stray dog issue, she said the Animal Birth Control (ABC) monitoring committee would provide the necessary instructions to those who regularly feed dogs. The opening of a kennel park would also be considered.
Ahead of the launch of the mass rabies vaccination drive for pet dogs and stray dogs in the city, Mayor Arya Rajendran said the situation regarding stray dogs in the city was currently at manageable levels, and there was no basis for any fear. Along with the vaccination drive, the civic body's health squad would also check whether restaurants and meat shops are having proper waste management systems. Checks would also be carried out in pet shops to ensure that all the dogs in these facilities were inoculated.
The civic body was also set to launch a survey regarding the number of stray dogs in the city. The last such survey was conducted in 2016. Licenses would be provided to pet dogs after rabies vaccination through the 15 veterinary hospitals under the Corporation. The Mayor appealed to the councillors to ensure that all the pet dogs in their wards were inoculated. Action would be taken against the owners for not vaccinating pet dogs.
Earlier in the discussion, M.R. Gopan, councillor of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that the ongoing ABC programme in the Corporation were ineffective. The dog sterilisation facility at Vandithadam was remaining closed for some months. He also said that action had to be taken against illegal slaughterhouses. BJP councillor Ashokkumar suggested that the dogs could even be sent off to Nagaland, where dog meat was a delicacy.
Welfare Standing Committee chairperson S. Salim said that the issue of stray dogs could be addressed only if the Union government amended the law, allowing violent and rabies-stricken stray dogs to be culled. LDF councillor Palayam Rajan said that lessons could be drawn from the ABC model followed in Goa, which had been found to be effective. Congress councillor P. Padmakumar said that sterilisation had to be carried out at more centres within the city for the ABC programme to be effective.
