Chennai: With the Tiruchy municipal corporation petitioning the State Animal husbandry Department on the possibility of inserting microchips in stray dogs, the department is also mulling to carry out the same, as move to carryout birth control programmes.
The move comes amid animal rights activists petitioning the department over the stray dogs undergoing birth control programmes having health issues.
Meanwhile, The Tiruchy municipal corporation is sterilizing stray dogs at a rate of 60 per day and is to increase it by 120 per day.
"We want to ensure that the stray dogs are not facing any health issues after the dogs undergo birth control programmes. The current method of cropping the ears of the dogs that are subjected to birth control measures does not provide any information on these stray dogs and about their health conditions and hence contemplating the possibilities of inserting microchips in the body of stray dogs." said a senior official of the Tiruchy corporation.
The Tiruchy corporation is planning to insert microchips the size of a rice grain and work on a radio frequency identification system. It is to be noted that a handheld scanner will provide details of the dog.
The state animal husbandry department is planning to hold a meeting of experts, including veterinarians and animal activists before giving the green signal in implementing the microchip in stray dogs that have undergone birth control programme.
"We have been relentlessly petitioning the corporation and the state animal health department for conducting studies on the health condition of stray dogs that have undergone birth control programme. The present procedure of cropping the ear of those dogs that were sterilized will not be of much help other than identifying that it was sterilized. The corporation officials informed me that they are mulling on inserting microchips into these dogs. Let there be an expert committee on this and then they decide." Sudha Rani, an Animal health activist from Tiruchy said.
She said that if there were no health issues with inserting these microchips, then it would be a good method to understand the health issues of those dogs that have undergone the birth control programme.
-IANS Inputs