CHENNAI: After 27 people were attacked by a single stray dog in Chennai on Tuesday night, experts have called to resolve the issue with a scientific approach.
Out of the 27 people attacked, 18 of them were admitted to Stanley Government Hospital and discharged later. The stray dog was killed on the spot in retaliation by the angered public.
“None of the victims had any severe injury and they were discharged after necessary treatment,” said a Chennai Corporation official. Following the incident, the corporation rounded up 26 dogs from Royapuram and kept them under observation, while the carcass of the dead dog was handed over for postmortem.
Meanwhile, experts are calling for a scientific approach to resolve the issue. “We don’t have the exact number of stray dogs. A comprehensive census needs to be done and animal birth control (ABabC) surgeries and anti-rabies vaccination (ARarV) needs to be done on a war footing,” said Antony Rubin, an animal rights expert from Chennai.
The corporation has so far performed around 15,000 ABabC surgeries and vaccinated the dogs. Out of the five AB C centres maintained by the civic body, three are operational and two are being upgraded.
“The corporation should involve the help of NGOs and upgrade its infrastructure in every zone to do more AB C surgeries,” said Shruthi Vinod Raj, a member of the Tamil Nadu Animal Welfare Board.
“We have kept the seized dogs under observation. AB C surgeries need to be done on 12 dogs. We are awaiting the postmortem report to ascertain if the dead dog was infected with rabies,” corporation veterinary officer Kamal Hussain told TNIE.