[1]Chennai: The Chennai corporation, which has been at the receiving end of complaints from irate citizens on the stray dog issue and from animal welfare activists suggesting more humane and concerted action on addressing waste disposal now, has a shortage of dog catcher staff. It is planning to recruit 30 temporary workers for the task.
“Not many come forward for this job,” said a senior corporation official, referring to the nature of the job. There are four permanent workers on the corporation’s pay roll who do this work and 27 others who are casual labourers.
The corporation was earlier paying workers according to the number of dogs they caught in a day, but a daily wage was later fixed to attract more takers. “The workers are paid around Rs 250 per day irrespective of the number of dogs they catch. The wage differs in every zone and the corporation is planning to encourage workers with incentives for every additional dog that they catch over and beyond 15,” a corporation official said.
The city earlier had six dog catching vans, but an additional eight have been operational to handle the annexed suburbs. “These vehicles have helped in addressing more quickly the complaints received from various parts of Chennai,” an official said. “Around 15 to 20 stray dogs occupy the roads at night and trouble passers-by and the corporation has managed the problem so far,” said K. G. Karthikeyan, a resident of K. K. Nagar. “Hiring more dog catchers may help solve the problem,” he added.
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