Retired people who have a feeling that they are leading a dog’s life can take heart. For, it is not just human beings who are discriminated against once their prime years are past them. Even dogs are sidelined after they have spent their ‘utility years.’
Retired sniffer dogs, which were once on the rolls of the Tamil Nadu police force to aid the men in khaki in detecting bombs, sniffing for clues at crime scenes and catching elusive criminals, are now leading a ‘humble’ life as their meagre maintenance allowance has not been hiked.
On the contrary, dogs which are still in service have been ‘granted’ an increase in feeding allowance.
According to sources in the State police’s dog squad, a police dog retires when it is eight-years old, as its sense of smell comes down after this age. Earlier, they used to be auctioned off on being retired. But following complaints of ill treatment by some buyers, the Police Department decided to maintain them along with those dogs that are in service.
Some years ago, the authorities concerned had fixed `44 per day as the feeding allowance for the retired dogs and Rs 85 per day for those animals that were in service. In this year’s Police Department budget, the government raised the allowance for serving dogs to `200 per day.
However, retired dogs continue to draw the old ‘pension’ though their food requirement is the same as their canine counterparts, which are still in service.
Sources said, the dogs are fed a diet that includes meat, milk, rice and vegetables. The hike in pension is a must for out of service dogs too as the cost of pet feed and meat has gone up like all other commodities.
Trainers and dog squad personnel desperately hope the allowance for retired dogs too would be proportionately raised.