CHENNAI: Animal rights activists have accused the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) of exposing 15 healthy stray dogs, picked up from the airport premises, to the highly-contagious canine distemper by accommodating them at a population control centre meant for dogs with the viral disease.
Around 50 people, including activists and members of NGOs, staged a protest outside the Pallikaranai corporation office on Monday, demanding the immediate release of the healthy dogs.
When the TNIE visited the centre, Dr R Prashanth, the in-charge, said all 15 dogs were sterilised, vaccinated and are healthy, and would be kept there for a month until a shelter at Manali is ready.
The activists, however, said they had evidence to prove that at least a couple of dogs with canine distemper were released on Monday morning, potentially exposing the healthy dogs to the infection. RA Kirthana, founder of Hope for Critters, said the disease could spread from a dog even three months after it survives the infection.
“Around 80-90% of dogs infected with canine distemper don’t survive,” she said. She added the dogs were caught by the GCC on August 7 and 8 from the airport premises and initially kept at a pound in Meenambakkam. Chief veterinary officer Dr J Kamal Hussian said they were shifted to Pallikaranai pound last Friday.
“All the infected dogs were removed last week and the centre was thoroughly fumigated and disinfected. The healthy dogs were brought only after thorough disinfection. At Meenambakkam, we could not keep them in separate cages,” he said.
However, the shelter in-charge did not allow TNIE to see the animals, saying a ‘letter’ from the veterinary officer is required to enter the facility. While the in-charge said the dogs would stay for another month, Hussian said they would be shifted by month-end.
Meanwhile, animal rights activist Lionel Praveen alleged the GCC performed ABC surgery on a seven-year-old pet dog belonging to ambulance driver M Janakiraman, when it should not have. The owner said the dog subsequently died at the Kannamapet ABC centre last Saturday, two days after being admitted. Hussian, however, said the owner himself had brought the dog and that staff were instructed not to perform surgeries on pets.