Mission Rabies: 10,000 stray dogs to be vaccinated in three-day drive in Kochi Corporation in Kerala

In a mass campaign, as many as 10,000 stray dogs across all 74 divisions of the Kochi Corporation in Kerala will be vaccinated in three days under the Mission Rabies campaign of Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS) in November.

A 200-strong team will be deployed as part of the mass vaccination campaign.

Though WVS has been running projects in association with local bodies across the country, this is for the first time that the Corporation is associating with it. WVS experts will work alongside the Corporation’s dog catchers during the campaign.

Already, awareness sessions are being held for school students. Stray dogs with symptoms of rabies are being observed, tested, and vaccinated as part of the campaign, which had a soft launch in August.

The Kochi Corporation is also pinning its hopes on an assurance by WVS to make available the service of six well-trained dog catchers under the Mission Rabies campaign to improve the functioning of its Animal Birth Control (ABC) centre at Brahmapuram.

“We have also submitted a ₹95 lakh-proposal to BPCL-KR under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding for buying two new vehicles for the dog squad, 10 new kennels, ice-lined refrigerator for more efficient storage of vaccines, scanning machine, autoclave machine and so on. Once the facilities are improved and new equipment are bought, more staff may be recruited to the ABC centres,” said Corporation sources.

Currently, the centre has two veterinary surgeons, two operation theatre assistants and six animal handlers. When both doctors are available, the centre has the capacity to sterilise up to 12 stray dogs a day. But due to various practical hurdles such as the non-availability of vehicles and animal handlers, and power supply issues, not as many surgeries are conducted every day.

The Corporation has been finding it hard to find fresh recruits as dog catchers. The existing catchers are paid ₹21,000 as monthly salary, apart from other benefits such as provident fund and ESI.

Even if trained handlers are made available by WVS, the Corporation will have to bear their expenses.