Madurai Corporation Commissioner R. Nandagopal on Thursday filed an affidavit in the Madras High Court bench here declaring that there is a proposal to construct an additional dog care centre with advanced technology at Vellaikal near Avaniapuram.
The affidavit was filed in reply to a public interest litigation seeking to control the stray dog menace in the city.
The commissioner claimed that the Corporation staff had caught 522 stray dogs from July 1, 2013 to July 23, 2013. More than 400 dogs are being caught in Madurai every month for the purpose of being sterlized and vaccinated, he added.
“We have a special plan to treat the street dogs with the help of Dr. Appu Pillar Murugan from the International Animal Welfare Society, London, from September 2013”, Mr Nandagopal said in his affidavit.
The petitioner, C. Ezhilarasu, an advocate, had sought a direction to the officials to administer “fatal injection” to the dogs afflicted by rabies in order to control the spread of the disease through dog bite.
The city had only one vehicle to transport the stray dogs to the sterlization and vaccination centre in Sellur, he claimed.
According to the Corporation commissioner, there were no reports of human beings dying due to rabies in Madurai because of the effective implementation of the animal birth control programme by the Corporation since 2006.
A division bench comprising Justices S. Rajeswaran and A. Arumughaswamy posted the case to August 5 for further hearing.
