The Hindu               06.06.2013

Dogged by complaints, Municipality explores new capturing methods

Blowpipe with syringe used to sedate community dogs for ABC procedure .

Traditionally, dog catchers in Puducherry have been
using ropes to capture community dogs in order to take them for ABC
(Animal Birth Control) procedure. This method has received a lot of flak
from animal rights groups and the general public, since the dog pulls
at the rope once it is lassoed and often is flung into the truck.

Following
several complaints, officials from the Animal Husbandry Department in
New Delhi visited Puducherry and asked the Municipality to adopt
different methods to capture the dogs. They suggested using a net to
catch the community dogs, but since the dog could get caught in the net,
capturing would be much more difficult. The Puducherry Municipality is
currently exploring various other options to capture these community
dogs.

On Tuesday night, for the first time,
Municipality veterinarian K. Coumarane used a blowpipe containing a
syringe, which would sedate the dogs and allow them to be taken in for
ABC.

In the course of the evening, with the help of
Forest Department officials, the Municipality managed to catch two dogs,
of which one was pregnant and so they let it go. The other dog has been
neutered and released.

Although this method does not
harm the animal, there were several drawbacks to using this. The
blowpipe method cannot be used in open spaces, since the dog has to be
identified and targeted. Unless the veterinarian has practice in dealing
with these instruments, it will be difficult to implement.

Further,
the blowpipe and syringes were taken from the Forest Department and
they were too thick and the dosage of medicine was too high to be used
on community dogs. Buying new syringes and medication was very
expensive, Dr. Coumarane said.

Since this method was
not as effective as was anticipated, they were now considering using a
job stick, which would contain the sedative at the end of a long stick.
Hopefully, this method would work better, he added.

The
officials had asked the dog catchers to catch the dogs by hand, but
considering some of these dogs could be ferocious, this would not be
possible, he said.

Until a proper method could be
identified, the Department would be outsourcing their dog-capturing
activities to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
(SPCA, which charged Rs. 445 per dog, he said.