Stray dogs pose a health risk

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 10. The Government's instructions to local bodies to catch and destroy stray dogs has placed the City Corporation in a predicament.

Hardly a year ago, the Union Minister and animal rights activist, Ms. Maneka Gandhi, had prevailed upon the Mayor to call an end to the killing of stray dogs. But in the absence of follow-up action to kickstart the sterilisation programme which she proposed as an alternative, hordes of canines roam the city streets posing a danger to pedestrians and motorists.

Public resentment over inaction by the local body reached a pitch last year after a four-year-old girl was bitten to death by a pack of marauding stray dogs at Vizhinjam.

With many of the much-hyped dog-catching and vaccination programmes launched by the Corporation over the years going astray, rabies is on the upward swing again. Commensurate with the mounting incidents of potentially infective dog bites and hydrophobia, the facilities in the Government as well as private hospitals in the city for providing medical attention to the victims, are sorely lacking.

The Corporation claims that it is going ahead with a scheme to go in for sterilisation of stray dogs rather than kill them. But with little basic data about the stray dog population or the male-female ratio, the project has failed to take off. The Animal Welfare Board puts the number of stray dogs in the capital at about one lakh. Animal rights activists feel that the number is far less but they are not sure about the actual figures.

Ms. Maneka Gandhi had reportedly requested the Mayor to take up the sterilisation programme with the help of the local chapter of the People For Animals. But PFA activists complain that Corporation officials had shown little interest in getting the project off the ground. They say the project could be initiated if the local body was willing to provide land, funds and infrastructural facilities.

The Corporation meanwhile maintains that the project has to be studied well. Corporation officials point out that the sterilisation programme had failed to make an impact in the Mumbai Municipality.

But as both PFA and the Corporation grope in the dark, the fate of the animal birth control programme remains uncertain, leaving the public exposed to the dangers posed by the menace.

The dictum all are equal before the law does not always hold good. Some are more equal, at least on certain occasions. And invariably the privileged ones are the trade union leaders and politicians.

They are exempted from the rules and regulations mandatory for the public. When the Vice-President, Mr. Krishan Kant, visited the capital to inaugurate the Golden Jubilee of the Kerala People's Arts Club, security was beefed up as usual and everyone was frisked.

Even the scribes who went to report the function had to handover their pagers and cellphones to the policemen positioned outside the venue. Without the slightest hesitation all of them handed over the gadgets, running the risk of missing messages they might get.

A trade union leader and his wife who entered the hall wielding cellphones too had to follow suit, probably because there was no other option.

Once the couple were conveniently seated in the hall, the trade union leader summoned a police officer and demanded the gadget back. The officer had no other choice but to oblige and he managed to get one cellphone for the couple overlooking the risk involved. Dissatisfied, the leader insisted on getting the other one and soon he secured it too.

On the other hand, the scribes had to queue up before the police and collect their pagers and cellphones after the function. After all, laws are not applicable to all and sundry. At least, some have the right to violate them.

By T.Nandakumar and N.J.Nair

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Section  : Southern States
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