As the news of a ‘sterilised’ dog that gave birth multiple times is making rounds, the Kozhikode Corporation clarified that the said dog was never sterilised and hence the report was baseless.
Mayor Beena Philip told reporters here on Monday that the cut on the ear of the dog in question could have been the result of fight with other street dogs. “The sterilisation process in female dogs involves removal of their ovaries and uterus. A dog giving birth after such a process is out of the question,” Ms. Philip said.
Meanwhile, the dog in question was taken to the Corporation’s Animal Birth Control (ABC) Centre at Poolakkadavu on Monday, along with its puppies (since they are of breast-feeding age). The dog will undergo surgery on Tuesday.
“We have an ABC Centre which has made exemplary achievements in just three years. We have sterilised 9,710 stray dogs so far. They were administered rabies vaccine before they were left at the exact same places they were caught from, in four days,” the Mayor said, adding that the Corporation had undertaken all steps prescribed by the Central government, including setting up adoption camps for street puppies, in connection with controlling stray dog population.
The stray dog, which was in news recently as the public alleged that it gave birth several times despite being sterilised, was brought to the ABC Centre at Poolakkadavu with its puppies on Monday. It will undergo sterilisation on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: K Ragesh
At present, the ABC centre has facilities to carry out five surgeries simultaneously. The centre can complete 15 to 20 surgeries a day. The Mayor added that the doctors at the ABC Centre would now be trained in keyhole surgery, which was less painful for dogs and easy to heal so that the centre could let them out at the earliest and speed up the process. There are also plans to develop the centre into a training centre for other veterinarians in sterilisation surgery. The availability of more doctors is expected to speed up the process as well.
The Corporation is also planning to open dog shelters. However, availability of space is a challenge. The civic body is apprehensive of public reaction to such a shelter. The Corporation will constitute a committee to study the management of stray dogs in other parts of the country so that the model could be replicated here.
Deputy Mayor C.P. Musafir Ahamed, Health Standing Committee chairperson S. Jayasree, Corporation Secretary K.U. Bini, and veterinary officer V.S. Sreeshma were present.
