Thiruvananthapuram: Octogenarian Kunjikrishnan had no lifestyle diseases and would walk kilometres daily. On Friday, when he chose to walk to a barber shop located two kilometres away through a short cut, little did he know that death was hiding in the garb of stray dogs. The five-acre field located near the banks of Vamanapuram river had turned into a safe haven for stray dogs. “At Kizhuvillam panchayat, hotels and individuals have chosen isolated plots on the banks to dump waste. The man was walking home through the banks of a canal that leads to the river. It is not known whether he had collapsed or not. The last we saw was his nose, tongue and ears being eaten,” said A.S. Sreekantan, president of Puliyoorkonam ward of the panchayat.
While there was no official word whether stray dogs were culled after Kunjikrishnan was mauled to death, sources hint that the angry citizens killed a few dogs. Similar incidents had been reported in the rural areas across Thiruvananthapuram last year also. A woman Siluvamma was mauled to death and eaten by stray dogs at Pulluvila near Poovar. A 90-year-old man was mauled to death at Varkala. “We had considered ABC programmes when the stray dog population spiralled in Kizhuvillam panchayat. However, spaying and neutering are to be conducted in Attingal vetenary hospital. There only two-three dogs can be culled every week due to limited infrastructure and lack of doctors,” Mr Sreekantan added. Meanwhile, veterinarians ruled out the possibility of the dogs at Kizhuvillam turning into man-eaters having tasted human blood. “Dogs engage in scavenging. Aggressive packs can kill humans but it’s unlikely that they hunt and eat humans,” a veterinarian said.
