Kochi Corporation tightens oversight on dog-catching teams

According to a report by The Hindu, the Kochi Corporation has decided to appoint a Health Inspector to coordinate requests from councillors for sending dog-catching teams and to maintain a ward-wise register to record the date and time of each operation. This step was taken following widespread complaints from West Kochi councillors alleging discrimination in the allocation of dog-catching services. When the agenda for discussing the dog-catcher's contract came up in the recent council meeting, councillors alleged that dog-catching teams visit their wards much less frequently compared to other wards.

Mayor M. Anilkumar stated that a 15-day advance schedule would be prepared for deploying dog-catching teams, with changes permitted only in emergency situations. Acknowledging that the councillors' concerns were valid, the Mayor stated that cancelling the contract would worsen the situation, as not enough dog-catchers were attracted despite repeated tenders.

LDF parliamentary party leader V.A. Sreejith stated that such complaints had been raised many times before and questioned why officials failed to implement the decisions taken by the council. Citing a recent incident in his ward, Palluruthy-Kacheripady, he said that a stray dog had bitten a Haritha Karma Sena member and a sanitation worker there. He said that despite repeated requests, the team arrived after three days.

The Mayor stated that the Corporation does not have an effective monitoring mechanism to track the number of dogs caught. Despite the Animal Birth Control (ABC) centre at Brahmapuram having the capacity to sterilise approximately 150 dogs per month, this number remained below 100 in many months. He stated that the Corporation could consider introducing incentives linked to the number of dogs caught.

According to a Corporation official, only 94 dogs were caught by 30 October. Mr. Sreejith suggested that a specific health official should be tasked with monitoring dog-catching activities and should be made accountable to the council.

BJP councillor Priya Prashanth stated that it is not appropriate to blame only the dog-catchers and emphasised the need to strengthen basic ground infrastructure. She demanded an increase in the number of cages used to keep stray dogs during the mandatory three-day post-operative observation period.

In response, the Mayor stated that the number of cages has already been increased. UDF councillor and Health Standing Committee member Henry Austin stated that it is a misconception that the stray dog menace can be curbed only through the ABC programme. He argued that even if 150 dogs are sterilised every month, the impact would be negligible.

The Mayor stated that the Corporation could consider organising special sterilisation camps along the lines of the anti-rabies vaccination drive. However, he ruled out the utility of a mobile sterilisation unit, noting that stray dogs cannot be released immediately after undergoing surgery.