Rabid dog bite cases on the rise in Kozhikode
The Hindu
Civic body helpless in handling strays, says it will focus on ABC programme
Repeated cases of rabid dog bites have been reported from different parts of the city in recent months. While accusing fingers are raised against the Kozhikode Corporation, alleging inaction on the part of the civic body in handling stray dogs loitering on city roads, the Corporation has expressed helplessness in this regard.
“We cannot kill a dog. We can only isolate it even if certified by a veterinarian that it is a rabid dog. At present, we are doing the only thing we are capable of - carrying out animal birth control [ABC],” said S. Jayasree, health standing committee chairperson of the Corporation.
The Corporation had recently won praise from the State Human Rights Commission for carrying out the ABC programme on stray dogs effectively. The Commission had even asked the civic body to take up ABC activities in nearby panchayats too. Ms. Jaysree said the Corporation’s ABC Centre at Poolakkadavu was currently the only one of its kind in the State with facility to sterilise up to 12 dogs a day. However, the capacity of the centre is limited and cannot handle dogs from nearby panchayats, she added.
“We have plans to expand the centre, add more surgery tables, and even open a training centre at Poolakkadavu. But local residents who have been up in arms against the project right from the beginning are still at loggerheads with the Corporation,” Ms. Jayasree said.
The Corporation also plans to set up a dog shelter for strays but has not been able to identify a suitable space for it. “Some organisations had come forward to take up the responsibility of stray dogs and set up a shelter at Thamarassery. But with the Supreme Court order not to take dogs more than 6 km away from their territory, we had to decline their offers,” the chairperson added.
Around 440 MBBS graduates of 2021 are not required to undergo one year of compulsory rural service as per the bond signed by them while joining the medical course through government-quota seats in 2015 as the High Court of Karnataka has said the law, enacted in 2012 for mandatory rural service, remained unenforced for 10 years as it was published in the official gazette only in July 2022.