MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently expressed a need for the state government to form a state-level Animal Birth Control Implementation and Monitoring Committee to coordinate animal birth control activities across the state in a scientific and phased manner as stipulated in Rule 9(3) of Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023.
A bench comprising Justices RMT Teekaa Raman and N Senthilkumar said so while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed complaining about stray dog menace in Muthulapuram village in Chinnamanur taluk of Theni district.
The judges observed that sterilization not only helps in reducing the number of stray dogs in a given area over time, but also has a positive long-term impact on the overall health of the animal, as sterilized dogs are less likely to suffer from problems like mammary tumours, uterine infections, among others.
Hence, a committee has to be constituted and standard operating procedures have to be framed for capturing, sterilization, immunization and release of stray dogs by municipal authorities to make the society free from stray dog menace. Unsure if any such committee has been constituted, the judges suo motu impleaded the director of animal husbandry of Theni-Allinagaram and issued notice to the officer, returnable in two weeks.