Kerala to kill dangerous stray dogs

Kerala, where stray dog menace has assumed the level of a huge health and socio-political problem, on Thursday decided to kill rabies-hit and dangerous street dogs. The decision was taken at an all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to find a solution to the stray dog problem.The decision to cull rabies-affected and potentially violent dogs was taken on the basis of the law Secretary’s advice that there was no legal problem in killing dogs that posed threat to human lives. The meeting reflected a general sentiment that paramount importance should be given to the safety of human beings.

Chief Minister Chandy instructed the concerned Government departments to ensure that all veterinary hospitals in State had a system for anti-rabies vaccine administration and sterilisation of dogs. The responsibility of controlling stray dog population will be on the local administration bodies, as per the decision of the all-party meet.

Facilities would be put in place in all the primary health centres for administration of anti-rabies vaccine. Administration of vaccine on and sterilisation of dogs would be done in all veterinary hospitals. It would be the duty of the local bodies to take the street dogs there for the purpose, the meeting decided.

High-level meetings will be held in all districts under the leadership of Ministers in the coming days. Every district will have a Minister in charge of the activities meant for controlling the stray dog menace. The Chief Minister will chair a meeting of the concerned Ministers on Friday in Thiruvananthapuram in connection with this.

Reports show that there has been a huge increase in the population of stray dogs in the State. As per rough estimates, there are more than 5,00,000 stray dogs in Kerala. State capital Thiruvananthapuram alone is said to have a stray dog population of 25,000.The decision to hold an all-party meeting on Thursday on the stray dog menace was announced by the Chief Minister when he was replying to a calling-attention motion moved by Government Chief Whip Thomas Unnyadan who said that over 90,000 people were bitten by stray dogs in the State last year.