With complaints on stray horses and pigs pouring in from
citizens, the City Municipal Corporation has ordered stringent action
against persons breeding the animals within the city limits.

Violation

Though
a ban on rearing pigs was already in force, no action was taken against
the violators so far. But now there was an increase in problems created
by stray animals on roads and near dump yards. Official sources said
that there could be around 1,500 pigs in the city with the maximum
present in the Ammapet Zone.

Though the persons who
rear these animals were asked to move their farms out of the city
earlier, pigs continue to roam freely on the streets. Similarly,
movement of stray horses on arterial roads disrupts traffic.

Corporation Commissioner M. Ashokan told
The Hindu
that persons rearing pigs would be asked to move the pig farms out of
the city limits. “Horses or pigs found on roads will be impounded and
their owners fined,” he added.

Section 350 and 351 of
Salem Corporation Act, 1994, specifically bans pig farming within the
corporation limits. Rearing any animal within city limits is banned
under Section 41 (3) of Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939.