In the wake of the growing street dog menace in Chennai, the city is all set to get two new animal birth control units to control the dog population. The Greater Chennai Corporation will be setting up two Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres, which will be controlling the population in the city and will be tackling rabies. 

According to reports, Chennai has three ABC centres - each in Lloyds Colony, Pulianthope, and Kannammapettai. The corporation has done a recent study that has found that there are 57,336 stray dogs in the corporation area following which it was decided to install two new animal health control units.

To date, the city has 16 special vehicles with five veterinary staff and a driver each to capture stray dogs. The reports say that Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi has held a meeting recently in which he directed the officials to identify the hotspots in the city that receive more complaints of street dogs chasing and harming pedestrians and people who are riding two-wheelers.

It has also been reported that recently, the civic body sterilised 7,018 stray dogs and the Commissioner has instructed the officials to conduct meetings on the stray dog menace every two months. It is pertinent to note that recently, the Supreme Court during hearing the appeals against a Kerala High Court verdict permitting the culling of stray dogs, said that it is essential to find a solution to the issue of stray dogs biting people. 

The Supreme Court bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and JK Maheswari noted that a balance has to be maintained between the safety of people and animal rights. The apex court said that people who routinely feed stray dogs could be made responsible for their vaccination and the caretakers are also liable to bear the costs if those animals attack people.