KOCHI: The stray dogs are posing a grave threat to human lives with several people, including women and children, getting bitten. It has now been revealed by people in the affected areas that these dogs feed on slaughter house waste which makes them aggressive.
“The deserted areas of the stadium ground and European Economic Market areas in Muvattupuzha are strewn with slaughter house waste. The canal going near the market is the worst affected. The stray dogs that feed on this waste are turning violent against human beings in the area,” said Aziz Kunnappilly, state co-ordinator of Green People, an NGO, and a native of Muvattupuhza which is the worst hit spot in the state in terms of dog bites.
He said that the Muvattupuzha municipality was doing nothing to contain the menace. Sherly Babu, a native of Edakkattuvayal, near Mulanthuruthy, Ernakulam district, said that in the areas where slaughter house waste was dumped in the open, the dogs turned violent.
“Our area and the Udayamperoor, Arakkunnam and Nadakkavu areas near Tripunithura are infested with slaughter house waste thrown in the open. The dogs that feed on this attack our cattle and birds apart from human beings. The people throw chicken waste too in the open which adds to the misery,” she said.
Four persons were bitten by stray dogs in Puthuvype area on Friday. Elamkunnapuzha panchayat president Beatrice Joseph, under whose jurisdiction Puthuvype area falls, said that meat waste thrown in the open in the panchayat became the feed for the stray dogs, resulting in their aggression.
Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University Vice-Chancellor Dr B. Ashok said it is common inference that flesh-eating animals showed more aggression. “No study has been conducted in this regard,” he added.
He, however, said that Kerala can take the Brazil way to counter the stray dog menace. “The local bodies in the state have failed in containing the menace of slaughter house waste. So as Brazil did, the male stray dogs can be sterilised by injecting medicines like Neutrasol and Gonacon which need to be imported. It is understood that one injection costs five dollars, but its advantage is that no surgical intervention is needed as is being done now and can be easily administered in large numbers,” Dr Ashok said.
