Krishnagiri Municipality has sanctioned ₹4.05 lakh for Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme for sterilisation of street dogs. Municipal Commissioner Chandra told The Hindu the fund has already been set aside. “It would touch ₹5 lakh, taking into account fuel charges, etc. We will start the programme soon,” she said. The programme would take off once the COVID-19 situation eases.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals has requested the municipality to expedite the programme and allocate land to set up of an animal shelter. “There is a proposal, but land availability is the key issue here. But, our Collector is keen on such a shelter,” Ms. Chandra said.
The ABC programme entails sterilising and vaccinating the animals, and giving them time to heal in a post-operative care shelter, before they are released back into their neighbourhood.
The municipality is, perhaps, taking up the ABC programme for the first time in many years, and the practice so far was to relocate the animals to the periphery. The ABC programme forbids relocation of street animals from their usual habitat as it would lead to stress in them.
In 2016, the municipality engaged contractors to pick up street dogs and abandon them in the fringes of the forests along the Krishnagiri-Andhra Pradesh border. Reports of animals being hauled up brutally using strings, in the absence of animal welfare activists, led to the Animal Welfare Board issuing a notice to the municipality.
