Thiruvananthapuram, September 15 (BPNS)
With a day left for the Kerala High Court’s scrutiny over the state government’s interventions in addressing the stray dog menace, an action plan got rolled out. The plan based on four components – an intensive vaccination programme, shelter homes for stray dogs and abandoned dogs, waste management, and awareness campaigns – will be implemented at the local body level and will be monitored by committees at the state, district, and local body levels.
Major components of the plan,
– vaccination campaign to be carried out from September 20 to October 20
– vaccination among stray dogs to be carried out by local bodies with the help of animal welfare bodies, resident associations, and others
– vaccination to be carried out free of cost
– it will be the livestock inspector who will carry out the vaccination among stray dogs
– priority to be given to vaccination at hotspots
– dog catchers at the local body level to be maintained by sourcing from volunteer army, Kudumbashree, animal welfare organizations, Janamaithri Police, and others
– such volunteers to be provided with rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis
The other day, a high court division bench comprising Justice AK Jayashankaran Nambiar and Justice Gopinath PJ in a special sitting observed that the state government is obligated to protect the citizens from the attacks of ferocious dogs. The court which posted the matter on Friday also directed the government to furnish a detailed report regarding the steps taken so far by it along with the status of compliance of its earlier orders given by the court to tackle the menace of dog bites.