The Hindu 27.11.2013
Municipal staff confiscating pigs face stiff resistance
At Vannarapalayam rearers threaten them with spears, knives
The Cuddalore municipal employees, who went about
removing pigs from certain areas in the town not only faced resentment
but also stiff resistance from those rearing the animals on Tuesday.
The
employees caught as many as 28 pigs from areas such as K.K. Nagar,
Pudupalayam and Vannarapalayam. But those rearing pigs at Vannarapalayam
challenged the civic employees when the later were about to take away
the pigs.
Armed with spears and knives they surrounded the employees and refused to let them go.
Suddenly
certain persons from the crowd caught hold of two pigs, slaughtered the
animals and threw the meat on the road to voice their protest.
Taken
aback by such brazen act the civic employees withdrew from the scene
and lodged a complaint with the Thevanampattinam police.
Health hazard
When contacted, Municipal Commissioner P. Kalimuthu told
The Hindu
that following a spate of complaints received by District Collector R.
Kirlosh Kumar about the pig menace and the health hazards posed by them,
such as brain fever, periodic efforts were being taken to remove the
pigs out of the town boundary.
Municipal Health
Officer Kumaragurubaran said that since pigs abound in the town, and
given their speedy proliferation, raids were being carried out in those
areas on a monthly basis. For the purpose of catching the pigs the
municipality had engaged trained catchers from Thanjavur. Those pigs
caught by them would be taken to Vedaranyam and let into the forest
areas. But today the staff unexpectedly came across a violent response
from those rearing the pigs.
They were strictly told
that if the animals were kept in the sty there would not be any problem,
but if the pigs started roaming in the streets they would be caught.
Street dog menace
As
for the street dog menace, Dr. Kumaragurubaran said that on an average
the civic body was sterilising 5—8 dogs a day. After 45 days of
sterilisation the dogs would lose their ferocity and therefore would not
pose any threat to the people.
The civic body seems to be toying with the idea of capturing the street dogs and freeing them in far away jungles.