The State Animal Welfare Board has recommended strict enforcement of the Pet Shop Rules and the Dog Breeding Rules in the State and reconstitute the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in all districts.
The board met on Thursday to discuss the stray-dog issue. Briefing the media on its decisions, Minister for Animal Husbandry J. Chinchurani said a notification regarding the enforcement of the Pet Shop Rules and the Dog Breeding Rules would be issued.
''Majority of the pet shops in the State are unlicensed. We will recommend to the government that such shops be issued licences by the panchayats concerned,'' she said.
The board has also recommended making licences mandatory for pet dogs and introducing a unified fee structure for the licence.
The revamp of the SPCAs in all the districts would help in addressing animal-related issues at the local level, Ms. Chinchurani said. The SPCAs would be chaired by the district panchayat presidents and the District Collector would act as co-chairpersons. The board's recommendation on the SPCAs would be forwarded to the government for approval, she said.
The board also decided to recommend to the government to administer multi-component vaccines for dogs through veterinary hospitals.
ABC programme
The government intended to set up one Animal Birth Control (ABC) centre for two blocks. In all, 37 centres had been identified for the sterilisation of stray dogs. The activities would be centred on the 170 hotspots identified by the Animal Husbandry department, she said.
Mission Rabies
Kerala was planning to partner Mission Rabies, the organisation credited with doing exemplary anti-rabies work in Goa, for anti-rabies vaccination activities in the State, Ms. Chinchurani said. She said that Mission Rabies would be roped in as ‘knowledge partner.’
Stray dogs vaccinated against rabies would be specially marked so that they could be identified. The vaccination would be made an annual exercise both for pet dogs and strays, Animal Husbandry department officials said.
