Stray dog menace: One more animal birth control centre opened in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: In view of rising cases of stray dog menace, Coimbatore mayor Kalpana Anandakumar on Wednesday inaugurated the third animal birth control centre, which was renovated recently, at Pullukadu in Ukkadam.
The existing facilities at Ondipudur and Seeranaickenpalayam can handle only 50 dogs a day and were not commensurate with the stray dog population, which is estimated to be more than one lakh.
The municipal corporation was forced to close the facility at Pullukadu in 2017 due to opposition from local residents. But as stray dog menace worsened in the recent months, the residents agreed to cooperate with the civic body to reopen the renovated facility.
The corporation aims at sterilizing a minimum of 100 dogs a day, commissioner M Prathap said.
“The three facilities combined can sterilize 70-80 dogs. We want to set up more centres, but are struggling to find suitable places. For now, we plan to expand the facility at Seeranaickenpalayam. The district collector, who is the chairman of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals (SPCA), has agreed to hand over half-an-acre of land owned by SPCA near the Seeranaickenpalayam centre. We plan to submit a proposal to construct a facility soon.”
The civic body is also planning to launch a mass anti-rabies vaccination drive for stray dogs and searching for an agency to carry out the task.
As many as 2,300 stray dogs were sterilized between March and November, a health official of the city corporation said. “The agencies carrying out sterilisation are given 700 per dog, which was enhanced from 445 in August. Enumeration of stray dogs that began in September has been completed and we are awaiting the report from the NGO that carried out the work on behalf of the corporation,” he said.
The mayor also flagged off a dog catching vehicle on Wednesday.