KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed all the six municipal corporations in the state viz., Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Thrissur, Kochi, Kozhikode and Kannur, to immediately take steps to register/license pet dogs within their limits.
A division bench comprising Justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Gopinath P also directed that the corporations should identify suitable locations within their territorial limits to be designated as feeding points for community dogs and place signposts at the locations. The court issued the order on the suo motu proceedings about the brutal killing of dogs in the state.
The court directed Thrikkakara Municipality to erect signposts at these locations marking them as feeding points for community dogs and also to provide details of these locations to the SHO of the respective police stations. This was to ensure that members of the public who feed community dogs at the identified locations are not subjected to any harassment while doing so, and in the event of any such harassment, the police authorities concerned can respond to the complaint filed by such persons. The signposts erected at the feeding points can also indicate that the area is a no-plastic zone, in line with the efforts taken by the Municipality towards that end.
The Dhyan Foundation and the Daya Foundation, which are registered animal welfare organisations, should depute their trained dog handlers to the areas within the territorial limits of Thrikkakara Municipality and catch the community dogs roaming therein for the purposes of transporting them to animal shelters where they can be subjected to Animal Birth Control procedures performed by qualified veterinary surgeons. The community dogs should, after being subjected to the birth control procedures, be duly vaccinated against rabies and other infectious diseases, rested and then taken back and freed at the very same location from where they were picked up.
The court also directed the Secretary of the Kochi Corporation to immediately take steps to open the animal shelter facility at Brahmapuram for use by the Dhyan and Daya Foundations.