ALAPPUZHA: Kanjikuzhi panchayat here has shown the way in animal care through an initiative to protect the pets and livestock of Covid-infected families. Beginning Wednesday, daycare centres for dogs, cows, goat and other domesticated animals started functioning within the panchayat limits.
Panchayat vice-president M Santhosh Kumar said that several households in Kanjikuzhi earn their livelihood from dairy farming. “Entire families are in quarantine and this creates hardships when it comes to taking care of the pets and carrying out dairy farming. As a solution to this, the panchayat committee has decided to open animal care centres in the panchayat area.
More than five families are currently in quarantine. The cows, which yield more than 10 litres of milk, too are in distress as entire households have been quarantined,” said Santhosh. “The family members cannot milk the cows and goats or feed them properly. Since they cannot milk the animals, the families will be robbed of their livelihood. The animals need to be milked or else they will develop a condition,” he added.
Ahead of the launch of the animal care centres, the panchayat on Monday had convened a meeting of dairy farmers, officials working in the field and rapid response team constituted to manage the Covid crisis. And a committee chaired by TN Viswanathan was formed. A ‘special army’ was also set up to take care of the animals.
How they do it
A person needs the help of animal care centre, he has to approach the Kanjikuzhi Grama Panchayat office. They can contact the mobile number of panchayat vice president: 9447463668