One dog catcher, one vehicle to carry the captures dogs and one veterinary surgeon to perform sterilisation on the canines; this is the City Corporation’s squad to tackle the stray dog menace in the city!
The vehicle, until the other day, was under repair and is back in ‘action’ only from Wednesday. Even if all these are in place and you dial the dog-catching squad, the reply will be to complain to the councillor and avail permission from the civic body. Or else, you need to be in that category of people who are living under the threat of rabid dogs.
Recently, in April this year, the squad, in a massive action, had caught 117 stray dogs from two wards under the Corporation in eight days for sterilisation. But the initiative could not be carried further as the vehicle broke down.
Now, even if the dogs are brought to the Veterinary Hospital in Pettah, only one vet is available to perform the sterilisation. “It will take at least one-and-a-half hours to sterilise one dog. Following which they have to be taken cared of for some more days; if it is a female dog, it is five days and for male dogs, it is two. Unless there are two more vets in the hospital, it will continue to be difficult to carry out the surgeries,” said Dr Bijulal, the veterinary surgeon at Pettah hospital.
“The space in the vehicle is not sufficient to accommodate dogs from even one area as more than 20 dogs will be present in most of the places. When more dogs are carried, the vehicle will not move,” says the dog catcher in the squad.
“There is a plan to buy one more vehicle for the dog-catching squad and it is being considered,” said a top Health official of the Corporation.
