Thiruvananthapuram: Animal rights activists fear culling of dogs under ABC

Thiruvananthapuram: Animal rights activists have alleged that the city corporation’s Animal Birth Control (ABC) project might be a facade for illegal culling of dogs. The dogs which the corporation claims to have caught after the reported attack of stray dogs in Kottappuram area are not there at government veterinary hospital, Pettah. This is the only ABC facility that the corporation has.

A press release issued from the mayor’s office the other day had claimed that around 30 dogs were caught on Monday and Tuesday for ABC from the coastal areas. However, the Pettah hospital did not have more than 20 dogs on Wednesday. If the corporation has been regularly conducting the ABC programme, there would have been at least some dogs in addition to the 30 which were supposedly caught.

The corporation’s claims concerning ABC surgeries do not tally with reality, according to I. Latha, trustee, People For Animals (PFA) Thiruvanantha-puram chapter.

“We have visited the hospital and found that the surgeries have not been happening at the rate claimed by the corporation. There has to be better monitoring,” she says.

An official told this newspaper that 320 surgeries were completed since the programme was announced in July.

Mayor V.K. Prasanth told DC that he will inquire into report on the missing dogs. Though he had announced that there would be a drive to catch dogs from coastal areas for ABC, so far the corporation has not asked the Animal Husbandry for additional facilities. At the Pettah facility, dogs have been kept in wired cages with limited space, violating the Dog Breeding Rules notified this year.

The mayor said new facilities will be ready through the corporation’s ABC project as soon as the ABC nodal officer, who had gone on training, takes charge this month. Though he has already returned, the official in-charge continues to be in office.