With close to 1,00,000 people getting bitten by stray dogs every year and animal rights activists opposing moves to use the method of culling, dog menace has assumed the level of a huge socio-political problem in Kerala, forcing the State Government to call an all-party meeting to discuss ways for ending the menace.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the State Assembly on Tuesday that an all-party meeting on stray dog menace would be held on Thursday in Thiruvananthapuram to find a solution to end it. “The health, safety and security of the people are of paramount importance as far as we are concerned,” said the Chief Minister.
Replying to a calling-attention motion from Government Chief Whip Thomas Unnyadan of the Kerala Congress (M), Chandy said, “Indeed there are two ways of thinking on the issue of stray dog menace. But we are aware of the people’s concern and their need for help. A final decision on the matter will be taken at the all-party meeting.”
Unnyadan, who is also the chairman of the Assembly Petitions Committee, quoted reports to point out that over 90,000 people suffered stray dog bites last year. “But animal lovers are telling us that there are laws which prohibit killing of stray dogs. This is not true,” he said. Unnyadan added that the stray dogs were even causing a large number of road accidents every year.
“Being people’s representatives, we have the responsibility to attend to the needs of the people. We cannot agree with the strange position of these animal lovers who view the lives of the stray dogs as more valuable than those of human beings,” he said, adding that the State had to earmark Rs7.23 crore in the 2015-16 budget for purchasing anti-rabies vaccines.
The Chief Minister supported Unnyadan’s viewpoint by saying that there were rules to eradicate the stray dog menace and the Kerala High Court had issued an order in this regard in 2006. A recent high-level meeting had opined that culling of stray dogs was the only effective way of ending or controlling the long-pending problem.
Every local self-administration body in the State has special annual allocation for controlling stray dog menace but records show that most of the panchayats and municipal bodies have not been using even a part of this allocation. “We are coming across a lot of problems on this front. It is a very complicated matter,” said an official of the Kochi Corporation.
The Kerala PCC had on July 3 asked the Government to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the issue of the stray dog menace. In a letter, PCC chief VM Sudheeran had reminded the Chief Minister that people were afraid of walking on the streets because of the menace. “A permanent solution has to be worked out,” he said in the letter.