COIMBATORE: With complaints of stray dog menace rising each day, the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has decided to reopen its animal shelter in Ukkadam, and conduct Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme. It will also be conducting a stray dog census across the city once the current breeding season gets over.
The Ukkadam facility was closed in 2017 following opposition from people in the neighbourhood. Following a recent incident when 10 children were bitten in a day by stray dogs, people who opposed the functioning of the shelter requested CCMC to reopen the facility. The facility is being renovated and will be opened in a month, sources said. Currently, individual compartments are being built for stray dogs and the compound walls are being heightened.
"The centre will be handed over to the Humane Animal Society, an NGO which is currently carrying out ABC programmes in Seeranaickenpalayam. Around 300 to 400 dogs can be sterilized in the Ukkadam facility per month," said an official.
However, NGOs expressed disappointment that the civic body is yet to implement Union Government's order hiking the amount given for sterilizing a stray dog. Speaking to TNIE, Dr Mini Vasudevan, managing trustee and founder of the Humane Animal Society (HAS), said they have given an expression of interest to the civic body to operate the Ukkadam shelter only under certain conditions which include renovating the centre, build additional facilities and improve the overall infrastructure, adding that the facility will be able to carry out around 200 sterilisations once the centre commences operation.
"Once the facility starts functioning, we shall also improve the animal rescue and surgeries in Seeranaickenpalayam facility as there are no animal rescue centres in Coimbatore. The civic body did not implement the 2013 GO increasing the charges for sterilising a dog from Rs 435 to Rs 700. But another order was passed by the union government in March 2022, revising the amount to Rs 1,650. We don't know when or if the civic body is going to implement the order. Currently, even if the sterilisation amount is hiked to Rs 700 per dog, it won't be enough as it costs more than Rs 1,600 for ABC," she added.
Centre's dole
In 2001. the Centre passed Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, for sterilization and immunization of stray dogs, and it is implemented by local bodies across the country. The Animal Welfare Board of India is implementing the Scheme of Animal Birth Control and immunization of stray dogs by providing grants-in-aids to the animal welfare organizations and local bodies which are implementing the ABC programme.