Incidents of abandoning injured and sick large animals in city and rural limits continue to highlight the need to revive Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Coimbatore which is defunct for several years.
In the absence of SPCA, animal welfare organisations functioning in the city for small animals are taking care of large animals though they do not have infrastructure and veterinarians to attend to such animals.
Earlier this month, a sick foal was found abandoned at KNG Pudur in the city and Humane Animal Society (HAS), which takes care of small animals like dogs and cats, received around 100 calls seeking to rescue the animal. The animal was taken care by veterinarians of HAS for two days. It was later shifted to a facility in Tirupur, sources said.
According to Mini Vasudevan, managing trustee of HAS, lack of basic veterinary facility for injured and abandoned large animals in this city is appalling in spite of having raised this issue several times. “The apathy of the authorities in getting SPCA revived or holding government veterinary doctors accountable for getting these animals treated needs to be highlighted. When large animals needs to be put down, only a government veterinarian is authorised to do that,” she said.
According to Blossom Felix, administrative associate of HAS, the organisation was getting at least one call per day from people alerting about injured or sick large animals found abandoned on roadside.
Though SPCA is mandated to function in every district, the functioning of the body was stopped in the district around six years ago. Though two acres of land was set apart for SPCA at Seeranaickenpalayam, it is lying unused and NGOs are not allowed to use it as shelter for large animals.
Ms. Vasudevan said that cruelty towards large animals could only be stopped when a strong SPCA is functional and action should be initiated against those abandoning injured or sick animals. Other than the District Collector as ex officio chairman, SPCA should have Joint Director of Animal Husbandry Department, Conservator of Forests (Coimbatore Circle), Chief Education Officer, SPCA inspector, two representatives each from NGOs and business houses, and Superintendent of Police - Coimbatore Rural as members.
