Chennai, July 27 (IANS). Recently in Tirupattur district of Tamil Nadu three year old N. Ritwik was attacked by a pack of stray dogs. Following this incident, a large-scale vaccination and sterilization drive of community dogs has been intensified by the municipal bodies of Vellore, Ranipet and Tiruvannamalai districts.
The campaign is being run with the aim of improving people’s safety and controlling the population of abandoned dogs. The footage of the incident went viral on social media, after which people’s concerns have increased.
The local administration was asked to strengthen animal birth control and vaccination programs. People have welcomed this campaign run by the government; He says that with continuous vaccination and sterilization, the population of stray dogs will gradually reduce and living spaces will become safer for children and the elderly.
This program is jointly run by the Animal Husbandry Department, Tamil Nadu Animal Welfare Board and non-governmental organizations. Major urban local bodies, including Vellore and Tiruvannamalai Corporation, have been organizing weekly vaccination and sterilization camps every Saturday for the last one month.
According to official figures, there are about 45,829 community dogs in Vellore district, of which Vellore Corporation has 27,102. Pernambut has 2,188 dogs, while Gudiyatham has 1,973. As of July 25, a total of 15,641 dogs had been vaccinated across the district, including 7,496 dogs inside Vellore Corporation limits.
Dog vaccination has been given priority in Tiruvannamalai. Of the approximately 5,175 community dogs in the city, more than 4,000 have already been vaccinated.
To further accelerate the efforts of sterilization of dogs, the first dedicated Animal Birth Control (ACB) Center is being built by the Corporation at a cost of Rs 64 lakh.
Whereas, around 12,000 community dogs have been identified in big towns like Ranipet, Sholinghur, Walajah, Arcot, Arakkonam and Melvisharam in Ranipet district. There are 5,787 dogs in Ranipet city alone. Officials said more than 60 percent of the identified community dogs in the district have already been vaccinated as the campaign continues in urban local bodies.
–IANS
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