The government has decided to hire the services of 10 veterinary surgeons on contract basis to aid the flagging animal birth control (ABC) programme of the city Corporation. The Suchitwa Mission and the city Corporation will bear the expenses for hiring the vets, Minister for Urban Affairs Manjalamkuzhi Ali has said.
The issue of stray dog menace becoming rampant in the city Corporation was raised by V. Sivankutty, MLA, in a submission in the Assembly here on Wednesday.
Mr. Sivankutty said people were unable to go for morning walks or ride two-wheelers at night because in almost all localities, packs of stray dogs chased, or attacked, them. Mr. Sivankutty elicited much laughter in the House when he spoke about dogs taking over the Assembly premises and the MLA Hostel where, he said, the canines were coming into rooms via the elevators.
In reply, Mr. Ali said the problem raised by Mr. Sivankutty was no exaggeration, and the government was even looking at a proposal to take over large plots of land outside the city and fence them so that the dogs sterilised under the ABC programme could be kept there.
SPCA aidThe government would seek the help of Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the Animal Welfare Board to implement schemes to check the stray dog population, he said.
