In yet another shocking incident of stray dog attack in Kerala, a pack of ferocious canines mauled a 45-year-old fisherman, Josclin, to death at the coastal village of Pulluvila in Thiruvananthapuram district. The incident triggered protests in the locality against the authorities’ neglect towards the call for containing the dog menace. This was the second death due to canine attack in Pulluvila in the past ten months.
According to eyewitnesses, Josclin was attacked by a pack of ferocious stray dogs near the shoreline in Pulluvila coastal village at 11 pm on Sunday when he had gone there after returning home from fishing. As the pack attacked him by fiercely chasing him for several hundred meters, he jumped into the sea but the dogs did not withdraw, they said.
Though his fellow-fishermen and other villagers, after managing to chase away the dogs, rushed Josclin, who had suffered deep wounds all over the body, especially in the legs, arms and stomach, due to dog bites, to the Government Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, he succumbed to the injuries on Monday morning.
Josclin’s death triggered intense protests in the locality with his widow and children joining a road-bock stir in Pulluvila and the Congress party calling for a shutdown in the area. The protest later spread to the Medical College Hospital with the villagers alleging neglect from the part of the authorities. The road blockade was called off on Monday evening.
Pulluvila had witnessed the death of a village woman, Siluvamma (65), a neighbor of Josclin, in an attack by a pack of dogs on the shoreline on August 19 last year. The dogs had attacked Siluvamma when she had gone to the shoreline in the night. Since then, there had been three deaths due to canine attacks in Kerala including the one that occurred on Monday.
In the wee hours of October 26 last year, a 90-year-old man, Raghavan of Mund-
ayil, died after being attacked by a pack of dogs when he was asleep on the verandah of his house in Varkala. Just 45 days ago, an 85-year-old man, Kunhikrishnan, had died in a dog attack at Thiruvilam near Attingal in Thiruvananth-
apuram district.
After Siluvamma’s death, Kerala had witnessed several incidents of mass culling of stray dogs by outfits formed by anti-stray dog outfits with the assistance of representatives of local bodies despite protests from Union Minister Maneka Gandhi and animal-lovers and warnings from the Kerala State local Administration Depart-
ment.
“Two persons from this village (Pulluvila) have already been killed in dog attacks. A minimum of 70 people, including children and the elderly, have been attacked by dogs since the death of Siluvamma. In the case of some of them, the injuries were very serious. We want an end to this. We can’t lock up ourselves inside the houses for fear of dogs,” said Catherine, a village woman.
“I am not politicising
this tragedy but the State Government should explain what it has done to end the
dog menace and for effective management of wastes which attract the canines,” local
MlA M Vincent of the Congress said.
Replying to a submission by Vincent on the issue in the Assembly, local Administr-
ation Minister KT Jaleel said the family of Josclin would be provided adequate assistance. He also said that the Govern-
ment would intensify measures to eradicate stray dog menace using the services of the Kudumbasree women’s self-help movement and private agencies.