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Corporation to set up animal birth control unit in Tiruchi soon

TIRUCHI: The Tiruchi Corporation hopes to bring the stray dog menace under check soon with the establishment of an animal birth control unit. All stray dogs in the city are to be sterilised over the next six months and also administered anti-rabies vaccine.

The unit, established at the Corporation’s old cattle shed on Madurai Road, is likely to be opened shortly.

The unit, including an operation theatre and post operation ward, has been established with the support of the Animal Welfare Board in an existing building which has been renovated. The Board’s vice-chairman V.N.Appaji Rao recently inspected the unit.

Previously, stray dogs were slaughtered after being captured.

However, the practice was given up a few years back owing to opposition from animal rights activists and the Blue Cross.

The city is estimated to have about 5,000 stray dogs and the Corporation plans to sterilise all of them. “The entire exercise has to be completed within six months, if the programme is to be effective,” the Corporation Health Officer P. Sivanesan told The Hindu.

Veterinary surgeons would be hired on contract basis for carrying out the sterilisation programme.

The sterilised dogs would be kept in the post-operative ward for seven days and relocated to places from where they were captured.

Once completed, the programme would check the growth of stray dog population over the next three to five years.

Dr. Sivanesan also disclosed that the Corporation would make it mandatory for all pet owners to get licences from the civic body for their dogs.

Pet owners should not allow their dogs onto public places. Animals, without licences, would be caught by Corporation workers and sent for sterilisation, Dr. Sivanesan added.

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