: High drama prevailed at the Kalambur junction in Ayavana on Monday after the police prevented activists of the Stray Dog Elimination Group from catching stray dogs and shifting them to another location.
Police said the troubles began by the afternoon, when they intervened on an alert from the local body. “By the time we had reached the spot, they had already caught about eight dogs. When we asked them to release the dogs, they challenged the police by saying they had permission from the panchayat secretary,” said Prince Joseph, sub-inspector of police, Pothanikkad.
The issue snowballed into a major crisis with the animal rights activists reaching the spot and opposing the move to shift the animals. However, the locals wanted the strays to be moved out from the panchayat and they claimed that they were tired of the stray dog menace.
The crisis deepened further as the Industrialist Kochouseph Chittilapilly reached the spot and requested the police to permit the anti-stray activists to proceed. He also announced a reward of Rs. 5 lakh to O.M. Joy, president of the anti-stray dog elimination group for his yeomen service in checking the threat posed by these animals.
Mr. Joy said that residents of the locality were unanimous that stray dogs should be shifted and not be released in the same locality, also adding that stray dog population in Ayavana increased when people started abandoning them after recent rabid dog attack. “We caught the dogs as I did not receive any letter from the panchayat stating that the earlier permission to catch strays has been cancelled. Though we had planned to hand over the dogs to Snehalaya Shelter in Coimbatore, the police have opposed it,” he said.
Commenting on the issue, Ayavana panchayat president Vincent Joseph said that he had sent a letter to the group on Saturday cancelling the permission to catch dogs from wards III, IV and V. “The group caught the dogs without the permission of panchayat,” said Joseph. Earlier last week, the panchayat secretary had given an in-writing permission to the group to catch stray dogs, which was revoked on an intervention by the animal rights activists.
The crisis, which lasted for several hours, ended finally with two persons, George Jacob and Jinu Kumar, expressed to take over the dogs to their homes.
Authorities of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals (SPCA) in Eranakulam said legal action would be pursued against Mr. Chittilapilly and other anti-stray dog activists. By announcing monetary rewards, Mr. Chittilapilly is indeed motivating others to kill these hapless animals,” said Sajeev T.K., secretary of the organisation.
