Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

City Corporation to revive rabies control programme

Thiruvananthapuram: The City Corporation is preparing to revive the flagging rabies control programme and implement it in a different format. Named Suraksha, the integrated project involves health certification of pet dogs and an animal birth control (ABC) programme for sterilisation of stray dogs.

The 17 trained animal handlers employed by the Corporation are now under a registered independent society. An advisory board chaired by the Mayor and comprising the veterinary officer, chairman of the health standing committee, health officer and Corporation secretary is being set up.

The Corporation is planning a contract with the society on the lines of the Kudumbasree project for garbage collection. Apart from capturing stray dogs for sterilisation and their post-operative care, the society will offer veterinary services for pets at fixed rates approved by the advisory board and the Corporation Council.

The proposal will be implemented with assistance from the Department of Animal Husbandry. The veterinary doctors and animal handlers at the veterinary hospitals under the Corporation are to be mobilised for the service. An ambulance will also be pressed into service to carry sick animals to the vet hospital.

Chairman of the Corporation’s standing committee on Health G.R. Anil said the services offered under the Suraksha programme could be extended to panchayats and municipalities in other parts of the State on demand.

“The project will be given top priority especially in view of the increasing menace caused by rabid stray dogs. We have requested the government for assistance to put the project on the rails,” he said.

The veterinary hospital at Pettah has been equipped with a laparoscopy unit to replace the costly and time-consuming method of conventional surgery. “The conventional pan-hysterectomy technique involving removal of the ovaries takes up to 90 minutes for an animal and requires hospital support facilities,” says an official.

The new laparoscopic equipment purchased at a cost of Rs.30 lakh will enable surgeons to sterilise dogs in minimum time at one- tenth of the cost. The animal can be released the same day.

A core team of six veterinary surgeons has already undergone training in keyhole surgery. The scheme is expected to be launched this month.

Mr. Anil said the construction of a building to house a dog hostel and in-patient division at Pettah would commence soon. Though the foundation stone for the building was laid last year, the project remained a non-starter.

The Suraksha programme follows a two-pronged approach to the control of rabies. While pet dogs will be licensed and issued health certificates, stray dogs would be sterilised or put to sleep. The project aims at making Thiruvananthapuram a rabies-free city by 2012.

Designed to substitute the catch-and-kill strategy which has invited strong protests from animal rights activists, the ABC programme involves a surgical process to sterilise stray dogs. Trained dog-capture teams will be pressed into service to bring the animals to veterinary hospitals in specially-equipped vehicles.

After post-operative care, the dogs will be vaccinated against rabies and released in the same areas from where they are captured.

The sterilised animals will be notched and provided with a green neck belt for identification. Rabid and terminally ill animals are to be put to sleep.

“The scheme aims at neutering and vaccinating up to 80 per cent of the total dog population by 2012”, says L. Ravikumar, Deputy Director, Department of Animal Husbandry.

The government had recently issued orders asking all local bodies to adopt the ABC method instead of killing stray dogs.

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