THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The decision of the City Corporation to revamp the stray dog control programme in the wake of unprecedented incidence of dog bites in the city might cheer up the city folk. However, the move has in a way left the old members of the dog-catching squad in jeopardy. As the new five-member dog-catching unit gears up to control the dog spree, the issues that had left the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme and the existing dog-catching unit dormant still remain unresolved. The nine-member dog-catching unit came down to four members simply because they were not paid regularly. Resultantly, they took to other jobs leaving the dog-catching vehicle rusting on the Corporation premises. The four remaining men have been working at the IC unit of Veterinary Hospital, Pettah, for four years without even receiving a single penny as salary. All these years they have persisted with the job hoping that the Corporation would pay them on a regular basis. Even when their constant pleas to be made permanent were turned down by the Corporation citing technical reasons, these men have remained patient and hopeful. The new dog-catching unit has also been appointed exactly in the same way they were deployed five years before. Not a single dog has been caught in the city since the last meeting between the Corporation and the dog-catchers failed to turn fruitful. Even the feasibility of the restarted ABC programme remains dubious. According to the ABC programme, the dogs have to be caught, castrated and left at the same place from where they had been caught. But often, the residents of the area would not let the dog-catchers leave the castrated dog back in the same place. This had always resulted in spats between the residents and the dog-catchers, often forcing the dog-catchers to return with the castrated dogs. The deployment of a five-member team to deal with such an enormous number of dogs in the city calls for further musings. When the old dog-catching unit with nine members was active, they could not operate in more than two routes in a single day. ‘’We would receive calls from so many places simultaneously. No matter how hard we worked, we had never been able to cover more than two routes in one day,’’ says a dog-catcher who used to work in Pettah. All this would mean that the new dog-catching unit could well prove far less effective considering the need of the city. The City Corporation, however, hopes for something different. ‘’We would like the new and the old unit to work together. Then only can we address the issue at least in a reasonable manner, if not in a fully effective way,’’ says S Pushpalatha, Chairperson, Health Standing Committee. The Corporation’s dream is unlikely to assume any colour. ‘’We want to be made permanent. Only then can we be assured that even if an accident occurs during our job, the Corporation would support us,’’ say the members of the old dog-catching unit.
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