Corporation begins project to provide home nursing for pets

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The Hindu

Thiruvananthapuram: The next time your family goes on an extended holiday trip, the pet dog can be left behind in safe hands. The City Corporation has embarked on a project to prepare a team of animal watchers trained to handle pets and assist veterinary doctors.

The self-employment scheme will provide job opportunities for 50 youth in the initial phase which was inaugurated on Sunday. After training, the youth will be appointed as animal handlers under the Suraksha scheme for Integrated Rabies Control and Animal Birth Control launched by the corporation. They will be deployed at the 10 veterinary hospitals across the city.

Though the primary duty of the handlers will be to capture stray dogs for sterilisation and provide paramedical assistance to veterinary doctors, their services will also be made available to pet owners. The team of handlers selected for the programme is proposed to be registered as a self-help group.

The team was expected to identify the market for their services, said Corporation sources. The mobile kennels and veterinary units procured by the local body would also be utilised by the animal handlers to take their assistance to the neighbourhood level. The handlers would be equipped to handle both stray and pet animals.

The five-day training programme starting on Monday covers a range of basic home nursing services such as washing and shampooing dogs, kennel cleaning, delicing and administration of medicines, and providing information about the vaccination schedule.

The handlers would be equipped to take care of pet dogs whose owners are out of the city on holiday. "The dogs can be kept at the house of the owner or shifted to a lodging centre to be looked after," said L. Ravikumar, nodal officer of the Animal Birth Control programme for sterilisation of stray dogs. The 40 portable kennels installed at the District Veterinary Centre for post-operative care of sterilised stray dogs were proposed to be used as the lodging centre.

The handlers would be trained to set up and maintain an aquarium and supply love birds. A unit for breeding of puppies was also on the anvil. The residential training programme was being organised by the corporation with the support of the Department of Animal Husbandry, the Institute of People's Education under the Union Ministry of Human Resources, and the Animal Rescue Centre, Kovalam.

The curriculum included behavioural training, animal handling, dogs and dog keeping, classification of breeds and character traits, restraining of dogs, equipment and handling, rabies control and street dog control, pet dog licensing, breeding and kennel hygiene.

Veterinary experts would provide guidance on methods to muzzle a dog, clean its ear, delice it, administer oral medication and take medical samples. They would also impart training in basic diagnostic techniques.

The trainees would be given practical sessions on dog catching and restraining using dog loops and poles and sedation of captured animals. Once the training is completed, the handlers would be provided with equipment such as dog muzzles and safety gloves, and capturing equipment. They would also play an active role in the licensing and vaccination programme for pet dogs.

The corporation also planned to provide the handlers with uniforms, identity cards and police identification certificates.

The project monitoring committee headed by the Mayor was scheduled to meet soon to finalise the fee for the various services offered by the animal handlers. The corporation would help other local bodies in the State to set up similar teams of animal handlers, said Mayor C. Jayan Babu. "The training facilities here can be extended to other places as well."

Hospital development committees would soon start functioning at the 10 veterinary hospitals in the city.