With more and more stray dog attacks being reported from various parts of Kozhikode, demand is rife for a proper Animal Birth Control (ABC) facility in the district.
It was on Sunday that a woman was attacked inside her house by a stray dog at Kuttiady. She sustained serious injuries in the attack. Similar incidents were reported from other parts of the district like Olavanna and Cheruvannur in the last one week where dogs attacked lone pedestrians and children.
The ABC Centre of the Kozhikode District Panchayat at Vattoli Bazaar had been forced to close down in 2018 following allegations of mistreatment of stray dogs brought there and mismanagement by staff. The death of around 10 dogs after sterilisation escalated matters. However, a new centre is coming up at Balusseri, said District Panchayat Vice President Reena Mundengat. “We have identified land, and the centre will be opened in a few months,” she added.
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Meanwhile, the ABC Centre of the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation has its hands full. The centre, opened in March this year, has already done around 1,800 sterilisations and vaccinations with the help of a strong team of surgeons and ABC assistants. “Our target is to sterilise around 13,000 stray dogs that were identified in the survey a few years ago. But we have been able to complete only one tenth of the target so far,” said Dr. S. Sreeshma, veterinary officer of the Kozhikode Corporation, who is in charge of the centre.
The coastal regions of Kozhikode city have been the regular joints of stray dogs for long. Hordes of stray dogs are a regular sight in the premises of the Kozhikode railway station and the central market and places where waste gets accumulated.
“It is not a sudden increase in the number of stray dogs; just that there is increased sighting these days,” Dr. Sreeshma said, adding that the centre had a huge responsibility on its shoulders as the number of stray dogs in the city would probably have doubled by now.
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