- The Kerala High Court ruled on Friday that all victims of dog bites must receive prompt, effective, and free medical care from government hospitals and hospitals connected to government medical colleges while the State establishes and sets up the machinery in the State to contain the menace of stray dogs.
- When ruling this, the Division Bench, comprising of Justices A. K. Jayashankaran Nambiar and Gopinath P. J., noted that these hospitals must also have access to sufficient medical care and vaccinations.
- The Court additionally stated that it would monitor the actions performed in this respect on a weekly basis and asked for reports to be provided in order to guarantee that the machinery would be implemented effectively.
- It was stated that the aforementioned therapy would not interfere with the individual's ability to independently pursue financial compensation from the State for the psychological and/or bodily harm he or she had suffered in a court of competent jurisdiction.
- A detailed four-step action plan was also provided by the State Government in a Government Order (G.O.) dated September 15, 2022
- Which included the following steps: mass vaccination drive, establishment of rehabilitation facilities for stray and abandoned dogs, sanitation/cleaning drive for waste disposal, and I.E.C. campaign.
- For coordinating the vaccination push, a three-tiered structure of the State Level Committee, District Level Committee, and Local Body Level People's Committee was also envisioned.
- In addition, the State Animal Welfare Board of Kerala's Director of Animal Husbandry submitted a report detailing the measures that were in various stages of implementation throughout the State.
- The initiation includes a mass anti-rabies vaccination programme for owned dogs in all local bodies of the State beginning on January 1, 2022; the identification of 170 hotspots for a similar programme for community dogs; and the identification of 37 Animal Birth Control Centers for the purposes of the ABC Act.
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