Lack of kennels slow down Corporation's stray dog sterilisation drive

Although the drive was launched last week, Corpn is staring at the absence of facilities to house and treat the captured canines. Having launched a drive to sterlise stray dogs in the city last week, the Tiruchy Corporation is staring at absence of facilities to house and treat the captured canines. With only 13 metal cag-es and sterilisation centres available for the entire city, the rate of catching and sterilising strays has slowed considerably. According to sources at least 8,000 strays have been identified in 65 wards across four zones of the Corporation. In the recent past, complaints about street dogs chasing two-wheelers and attacking pedestrians have been on the rise. Faced with mount-ing complaints, the Corporation outsourced the task of catching around 1,300 dogs to Animal Welfare and Rural Development Trust (AWARD), a private body, as a part of a canine birth con-trol procedure for 2017-2018. The process was formally launched two days ago and at least 10 strays were picked up.

But sources said limited infrastructure for the procedure is affecting and even slowing down the entire process. The 10 dogs were caught in Thillai Nagar and after sterilisation, housed in the Corporation's dog shelter in Palakkarai, which has only 13 kennels for the entire city. Since these dogs should be monitored for three to five days,  In focus Official sources said that ward numbers 1 to 6 would be covered in the ensuing week of the stray catching drive. Meanwhile, the menace of stray dogs in Kumaran Nagar, Ramalinga Nagar and parts of Vayalur Road is said to be continuing.
In the absence of adequate number of kennels has been prolonging the pace of the sterilisation drive. 'As we are adhering to the instructions of the Animal Wel-fare Board of India (AWBD, the lassoing mode of dog catching suggested poses certain difficul-ties. Even if we overcome the constraints, kennels required for monitoring a dog's health is a mismatch for the population of stray dogs that we need to catch and sterilise. This only makes residents continue to complain about the nuisance caused by stray dogs," R Kulothungan, AWARD coordinator, told Express.

With the 13 kennels, approximately 150 dogs could be sterilised (surgical castration for male dogs and ovariohysterec-tomy for females) per month. If the number of kennels is increased to 20 and another five kennels added for quarantine purposes(for treating unhealthy or ill stray dogs), around 250 strays could be sterilised per month. 'As a temporary solution, the existing dog shelter in Palakkarai could be expanded as we have space available for this," Kulothungan said. When contacted, senior Cor-poration officialssaid wodc is in progress to identify and expand a facility
Source epaper. newindianexpress. com//c/21 501 61 7