Veterinary Surgeon Dr Deike Schacht who runs the IAR clinic and rescue centre in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, has spoken out in The Hindu newspaper against the poisoning of street dogs in the area.
Over the past few years, Dr Schacht’s team has sterilised nearly 2,500 dogs in the city with the aim of stabilising the stray population and preventing the spread of rabies.
Dr Schacht argues that the majority of people given the anti-rabies vaccine at the Government Hospital have been bitten by their own pets reacting to mishandling. She also insists that there would be no need to administer anti-rabies vaccines to people on a large scale if dogs were vaccinated as a matter of course.
On a more positive note, Dr Schacht welcomes the move by the State Government’s Animal Welfare Board to undertake Animal Birth Control (ABC) programmes throughout the whole city. She is now working on a proposal as to how she and her team can operate on 5000 dogs in twelve months.
IAR Trichy is already helping one local municipality to establish the ABC programme in their area by spending two days a week operating at their premises until their own vets are sufficiently well-trained. The IAR team is also training the municipal catchers and attendants and giving support in setting up the basic infrastructure for the programme. A Memorandum of Understanding between IAR Trichy and the Municipality is to be signed soon, and IAR will be paid a fixed sum for each sterilisation.