The Hindu 26.07.2012
Corporation to appoint more veterinarians
The city Corporation is planning to appoint veterinary surgeons on contract basis to conduct sterilisation operation on stray dogs captured from the city limits.A meeting of the Corporation health and veterinary officers convened by Mayor K. Chandrika decided to appoint veterinary surgeons at the Pettah and Thiruvallam veterinary hospitals of the Corporation.
“Dearth of veterinary doctors is a major issue because of which the Corporation is not being able to perform sterilisation surgeries on stray dogs. Unless the sterilisation process is done in a time-bound manner our dog squad will also not be able to capture stray dogs and keep them at the hospitals. In order to address this issue we have decided to appoint veterinary surgeons on contract basis,” Ms. Chandrika said.
She said that the meeting had also decided to improve the facilities at the Thiruvallam and Sreekaryam veterinary hospitals. This included setting up facilities for conducting sterilisation operation and more dog cages.
However, Ms. Chandrika said that even if the sterilisation facilities were improved the issue of attacks by stray dogs would remain unaddressed. “As per existing rules, we have to release the sterilised animals back to the same environment from where they were captured. So the issue of attacks by stray dogs remains. Bringing down the population of stray dogs through sterilisation will still take a lot of time,” she said.
