Ceaseless complaints of street dogs troubling pedestrians and motorists have put the civic authorities of Kochi in a fix.
The latest incident in the series is the reported disfiguring of a body of a 55-year-old man, near Marine Drive on Thursday.
It is suspected that street dogs might have mauled the body found on the footpath.
There have been complaints earlier of dogs attacking pedestrians and motorists at various places in the city, including tourist spots. Even as plaints pour in, the corporation authorities are finding it difficult to implement measures to control the canine population on city streets.
A viable option before the Kochi Corporation is to implement the Animal Birth Control Programme, whereby street dogs are sterilised.
However, the civic body’s attempts at sterilising dogs had to be dropped following public resistance, said T.K. Ashraf, chairman, health standing committee of the Kochi Corporation. During the campaign, street dogs were caught from various parts of the city and sterilised with the support of the district veterinary authorities.
However, the dogs could not be released back to the areas from where they were caught as the local people objected to it. The dogs then had to be released near Kundannoor in the middle of the night, said Mr. Ashraf.
Though the civic authorities maintained that stray dogs were no longer killed in the city following a judicial directive, insiders indicated that the animals were eliminated in a discreet manner.
When civic representatives press the administrators to take action, dog catchers are unofficially deployed to eliminate the animals.
The dogs are caught using metal traps and eliminated using lethal injections, it was pointed out.
Mr. Ashraf said the corporation was willing to implement the Animal Birth Control Programme and funds could be utilised from the People’s Plan Programme for the project.
Funds would not be a constraint as money earmarked for animal welfare schemes could be utilised for the programme. All that the civic body needed was the cooperation of the residents for the successful implementation of the programme, he said.
