Dog menace plaints 6th highest for corpn

CHENNAI: They bark but do not bite, assert animal rights activists, but the corporation reports at least a hundred cases of dog bites daily. N V

Ranganayakalu

, a resident of

Naidu Street

in

Kottur

, is apprehensive motorists passing through his neighbourhood may meet with accidents when some of the two dozen dogs in the area chase vehicles.

Ranganayakalu, a social activist, said that despite his repeated complaints to the city corporation on its 1913 helpline, rabid dogs still roamed the streets. “I registered two complaints (No 122UPN and No. 153ECD) over the last three days. Dog catchers came to our street twice but left without the dogs. Many of the dogs are unsterilised. Some are rabid. I suspect they want me to bribe them for doing their duty”

A corporation official assured that another raid would be carried out on Naidu Street on Monday. “The dog catchers may have left the dogs behind if they feel the animals do not pose any danger. They would also know if the dogs have been sterilised or not,” the official said.

According to Naidu Street resident

Achyutha Kumar

, there are around 30 dogs on a 300m stretch.

“These dogs take shelter under parked cars during the day. At night, they chase motorists. Once in a few months, there would be a fresh batch of puppies.”

For every city zone, there is one van and about four to seven trained dog-catchers. As per the 2014 dog census, there are 84,000 dogs in the 15 zones of the city, with Sholinganallur and Madhavaram zones housing about 9,000 dogs each and

Royapuram

less than 3,000 dogs. An official said, “We have proposed to carry out a dog census in another two months. Complaints related to dog menace are on the decline.”

Such complaints ranks sixth on the list of complaints received by the civic body helpline.

Blue Cross of India

general manager Dawn William said, “Dogs are intelligent animals. Very few of them chase vehicles and only do so when they are provoked by unusually loud engine noise. They will only chase strangers who look suspicious.”