Reports of stray dog bites from the city has increased in the past few weeks, with the onset of summer, according to the city Corporation’s veterinarian.
As many as 1,200 dogs were sterilised in the past one year, by the Corporation’s veterinarians and under the Kudumbashree’s initiative. “In the past two weeks, we have been receiving a lot of calls regarding dog bites in the city. We are not sure if this can be linked to the increase in temperature. Except one or two, most of these are minor cases. A majority of these calls are from the coastal regions,” said the Corporation’s Veterinary doctor Sreerag.
The Corporation has stepped up sterilisation of dogs in the coastal areas in response to the hike in dog bite cases.
100 stray dogs
Around 100 stray dogs have been sterilised in the Kottappuram area alone.
The Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme of the local body had come to a halt for almost seven months till July last year. In the months after that, the programme restarted from its new facility in Thiruvallam, with around 10 sterilisations per day.
Till the end of March, 900 dogs have been sterilised by the Corporation’s veterinarians.
Another 300 dogs were sterilised by the Kudumbashree, which began its animal birth control programme last year.
“Our aim is to sterilise at least 2,000 dogs this year. Even with the birth control measures, the number of stray dogs is going up by 20% annually. This has to be a continuous process. It does not get over once the surgery is done. We have to continue with the vaccination of the dogs every year. This has been done in places like Goa over the years,” said Mr. Sreerag.
Currently, the sterilisation of stray dogs that are caught from all the 100 wards of the Corporation are being done in the facility attached to the Government Veterinary Hospital in Thiruvallam.
Two veterinary doctors are carrying out sterilisation activities here.
A plan is there to renovate and convert it into an operation theatre at a hall attached to the Thiruvallam facility.