In a few days from now, the Coimbatore Corporation will start catching community dogs as it has readied two vehicles for the purpose.
According to sources, the civic body had purchased two vehicles at Rs. 15 lakh with funds from the State Government. The vehicles have six chambers to hold as many community dogs.
The Government had provided Rs. 10 lakh as grant. The civic body had chipped in with the rest. The Corporation will use the vehicles to transport the mongrels to the two animal birth control centres in the city. It will at present send the animals only to the centre at Seeranaickenpalayam and start taking the dogs to the Ukkadam centre once the construction is complete.
As on date, the Ukkadam centre is nearing completion. The civic body entrusted to People for Animals II the management of the centre.
At the Ukkadam centre, the Corporation has proposed to perform at least 500 animal birth control operations a month.
After the operation, the dogs will get to stay at the centre for a day or two and then return to the areas from where the Corporation workers had caught them.
For the managers of the Ukkadam centre, the Corporation will pay only the operation and maintenance charges. For the managers of the Seeranaickenpalayam centre – Humane Animal Society – the Corporation will also pay for the transportation, if the organisation had transported the dogs.
At present, at the Seeranaickenpalayam centre, the organisation performed more than 100 operations a month.
The sources said that as part of the efforts to control the community dog population, the Corporation had also planned to train five persons as dog catchers. The training would start soon.
The sources said that the Corporation had estimated that there were around 40,000 community dogs in the city.
