The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Dakshina Kannada, headed by Deputy Commissioner, will look into the capacity of the State Livestock Breeding Centre in Koila to take care of 41 head of unwanted cattle before taking a decision on distributing these cattle among the 13 Gou Shalas (shelters for cattle).
During the meeting of the society here on Monday, Deputy Director of Livestock Breeding and Training Centre Henry said that with shortage of staff, the centre is finding it hard to take care of 41 cattle which have been notified as unwanted. Moreover, the centre, which is spread out on 700 hectares, has 440 animals, over two times its carrying capacity of 200.
Deputy Director of Animal Husbandry Prasanna Kumar P.G. said that the State government has issued directions that such cattle should be taken care of by the Gou Shalas that are receiving aid from the government.
Subrahmanya Bhat from the Swami Vivekananda Sevashrama Trust, Belthangady, which manages one of the 13 Gou Shalas in the district, said that it is wrong on the part of the State government to force Gou Shalas to take care of unwanted cattle.
“Just because the government is giving aid, it cannot force Gou Shalas to take care of such cattle for which we have to spend double the aid given by the government,” he said.
Activist Dinesh Pai said that the government should not put a rider that refusal to take care of such animals will lead to cancellation of aid.
Activist Suma Nayak said that the centre, which has large tracts of land, should look at other ways to take care of the 41 head of cattle. Agreeing with this suggestion, Deputy Commissioner K.V. Rajendra directed Mr. Kumar to visit the centre in a week’s time and look whether the unwanted cattle can be taken care of there. “If it is not feasible, then these cattle can be distributed among the 13 Gou Shalas,” he said.
Mr. Kumar said that the State government has so far released ₹ 14.8 lakh aid for eight Gou Shalas in the district for the year 2020-21. Applications have come from five Gou Shalas seeking aid. The total aid sought by 13 Gou Shalas was ₹ 96.69 lakh, he said.
