Kochi: The City Corporation has decided to increase the capacity of its Animal Birth Control unit at the multi-specialty veterinary hospital at Brahmapuram with an objective to sterilise all strays within the city by end of next year. The local body has procured a dog van using Plan funds to help increase the sterilisation rate.
"The vehicle is specially designed to transport the strays from city areas to Brahmapuram and to bring them back to their localities. The civic body has taken series of measures to rein in the population of strays. We have decided to scale up operations of the Animal Birth Control unit in view of increasing complaints against stray dog attacks," said health committee chairperson V.K. Minimol.
The unit, first-of-its-kind set up by any local body in the state, has sterilised as many as 2,500 stray dogs so far. The Corporation's hi-tech canine hospital can now sterilise only six strays per day which is grossly insufficient considering the increasing stray population in the city.
As per an earlier estimate, the city has nearly 20,000 stray dogs. In an effort to effectively address the issue of stray dog menace, Mayor Soumini Jain had earlier offered technical support for other local bodies in setting up stray dog sterilisation units in their areas.
