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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: May 2007

Reports of a new chemosterilant being used in Chennai were premature

 

CHENNAI--Tamil Nadu state health minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran on April 18, 2007 stirred hope worldwide that Tamil Nadu Veterinary & Animal Sciences University had developed a new and better injectable chemosterilant for male dogs.

"Male dogs can be sterilized through injection of cadmium chloride. This procedure is simpler than birth control surgery," Ramachandran told a Chennai workshop on rabies prevention and stray dog control.

Ramachandran indicated that cadmium chloride injections would soon be field-tested in Chennai by the local Animal Birth Control programs. His remarks were amplified that evening by Sanjay Pinto of NDTV, and by The Hindu, a Chennai-based nationally circulated newspaper, the next morning.

That Chennai would be first to test a new chemosterilant seemed plausible. The Blue Cross of India introduced the Animal Birth Control program concept in 1964. In 1990 the Blue Cross of India introduced a chemosterilant called Talsur that was promptly withdrawn after injected dogs developed excessive scrotal swelling.

In 2005 the Blue Cross of India tested Neutersol, the first chemosterilant licensed for U.S. use. Although Neutersol has long been used successfully under similar conditions in Mexico, it failed Indian scrutiny when some of the injected dogs developed scrotal swelling reminiscent of the Talsur experiment.

But Blue Cross of India chair Chinny Krishna told ANIMAL PEOPLE and fellow members of the Asian Animal Protection Network that cadmium chloride is far from being ready for broad deployment, and may never be an acceptable sterilization method.

"Cadium chloride works as any other corrosive, cell-killing drug would work," Krishna said. "It causes scar tissue to form and then slough off, leaving the dog sterile. However, an unacceptable level of pain and swelling results, as with most other chemosterilants. Calcium chloride has been experimentally tried on just six dogs, under lab conditions. No long-term study has been made--no short-term study, even."

Chennai municipal commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni told Kannal Achuthan of The Hindu that the city estimates there are about 115,000 dogs at large, of whom about 75,000 (65%) are sterilized. The municipal ABC program sterilizes about 10,000 dogs per year, of about 13,000 per year who are impounded.

The success of the Chennai ABC program has encouraged the Tamil Nadu state government and other cities in the state to start parallel efforts.

Salem, for instance, with an estimated 5,925 street dogs and 2,540 household pet dogs, and 1,800 reported bites in 2006, in March 2007 introduced an ABC program.

"Health and veterinary authorities will sterilize and vaccinate the street marauders and intern them for seven days in the SPCA's Hasthampatti dog kennel for post-operative care," said The Hindu.

But Tamil Nadu has not been immune from the anti-dog furor that hit the Bangalore and Hyderabad areas after recent fatal attacks.

"Dharmavaram municipality, Anantapur district," in southern Tamil Nadu, on April 14, 2007 "started killing dogs without any reason or public complaint," alleged Clementien Pauws of the Anantapur-based Karuna Society Puttaparthi. "Approximately 200 dogs were killed in three days," Pauws said, among them many dogs who had been sterilized by either the Karuna Society or another local ABC program.
An ABC delegation to officials managed to stop the Dharmavaram killing, but "The hysterics from Bangalore and Hyderabad seem to be very infectious, serving different interests and politics," Pauws observed.