After spate of dog attacks, Chennai residents seek better waste management to control stray menace
The menace will not be controlled in the capital city until proper solid waste management exists. As stray dogs are fed around garbage and landfills.
CHENNAI: The rise in dog attack cases in Chennai is posing severe concerns about the safety of residents, especially children and the elderly. Recently, two children weremauled by foreign-breed pet dogs under the city corporation limit. Citizens fumed that the stray dog menace continues to be a threat and demand stern action from the Chennai Corporation to curtail the stray dog population.
Despite the civic body conducting vaccination programs and animal birth control (ABC) surgeries for stray dogs in the city, the menace will not be controlled in the capital city until proper solid waste management exists. As stray dogs are fed around garbage and landfills, they develop and attach around those areas. The dogs become territorial and aggressive about the locality where they are fed.
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“Visitors who come to the Murasoli Maran Park daily bring raw leftover meat cuts from the butchers to feed the stray dogs that live within the park. While it is a humanitarian gesture, we are left wondering if the GCC officials have vaccinated these dogs and if they have undergone the ABC. When we raised our concern with those who were indulging in this action, they doubted and questioned our intentions,” C Raghukumar, a civic activist and a resident of Perambur, lamented.
“Feeding the dogs when the parks are closed would be the right way to handle the situation. Feeding several strays when there are a lot of kids and adults moving around would be suicidal, “ he further added.
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Residents of north Chennai complain that several stray dogs roam around the locality. They have not seen any strays that have undergone ABC or been vaccinated in the area so far. It poses a threat to the residents even during the daytime as they become aggressive because the animal lovers feed them raw meat waste.
“We are tired of telling meat shop owners and people not to feed the stray dogs, but it continues to fall on deaf ears. Even the local body authorities are aware of such activities, yet no steps have been taken against them. It is one of the major reasons for the dogs to turn into aggressive behaviour when these people don’t feed them even for a day,” said T Gunasekaran, a resident of Mannady.
In addition, the garbage dumped in every nook and corner also plays a vital role in the surge in the stray dog population in the locality. As door-to-door garbage collection is a failure in the city, residents dump waste on the road, a feast for stray animals. Only when the city corporation brings strict regulations on solid waste management will the stray dog menace be controlled in the city, commented U Karthikeyan, a resident of Thuraipakkam.
Meanwhile, after a rabies-infected stray dog mauled 29 people in north Chennai in November 2023, the city corporation commenced a stray dog census and mass immunisation in Royapuram zone (zone 5). The population of stray dogs increased by 1,200 in 2018; as many as 3,900 stray dogs are in the zone. However, the local body has stopped carrying out the mass vaccination program and surgery for stray dogs in other zones. Residents and activists urged the corporation to resume the program to collect the number of stray dogs in the city and take action to control it.
When contacted, a senior official stated, “We have been vaccinating, and ABC surgeries are done for the stray dogs in the city. Steps have been taken to intensify the program after the rise in dog attack cases in the corporation limit. Also, we have urged the pet owners to vaccinate their dogs regularly.”
