Citizen Connect: Residents want a permanent solution to dog menace in Rajaji Nagar

Talking to DTNext, A V Surendiran, Chairman of the Rajaji Nagar Civic Exnora Welfare Association, said, “We have complained a number of times to officials concerned. They send a team to catch the dogs and vaccinate them for rabies or sterilise the animal. However, the animals are dropped back in the same locality. How does it solve the menace?” He added that the unending barks and chasing of vehicles have caused not just distress, but also panic. 

“There are many who fear dogs,” he said. The sterilisation and vaccination are carried out by Blue Cross of India or Society for the Prevention of Cruelty To Animals. Surendiran pointed out that a number of residents who feed the dogs are to be blamed for the menace as well. 

“They feed them and keep bowls at some points in the locality with food. No wonder they don’t want to leave the locality,” he said. He also said that the Greater Chennai Corporation has been totally unresponsive to their complaints. 

“They take action with a number of conditions—we should be present when they visit the spot and show them where the stray dogs are. Shouldn’t the Corporation also care for the human beings? Don’t we have the right to live peacefully? Isn’t there a permanent solution for stray dog menace?” he asked. R Sokkalingam from the SPCA said that they have been seeing a lot of resistance against dropping the animals back in the locality, after vaccination and sterilisation. 

“They tell us they cannot deal with the animals. But they don’t understand that dogs are territorial and if let into a new locality they will be chased away the other dogs. They can even die in that process, as they get bitten by them or get injured. If we leave them in another area, the residents there will complain. We have had instances when our vehicles are blocked, asking us not to let the dogs into that same area.” 

He brushed aside calls for culling saying that under Animal Birth Control Rules, only dogs with untreatable disease “Canine distemper is contagious and while there is treatment, it has to be done in quarantine. In the advanced stages, we go for euthanasia.”