Thiruvananthapuram | Facing flak from various quarters over the death of an 11-year-old differently abled boy in a stray dog attack in Kannur district of the state, the Kerala government on Monday blamed central legislations for not being able to effectively deal with aggressive vagrant canines.

Terming the incident as "extremely unfortunate and painful", State Minister for Local Self-Governments M B Rajesh said certain provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the Animal Birth Control (ABC) rules issued under it need to be relaxed for effectively dealing with the nuisance posed by stray canines.

He claimed that it was difficult to set up and run ABC centres as per the central norms as the rules stipulate that sterilisation should be done in an AC operation theatre, the dog should be treated there for four days and be released only after the wound is healed.

The minister, in a statement, further claimed that the government was taking all precautions and measures to prevent such tragic incidents and would also move the Supreme Court again seeking permission to kill stray dogs which pose a threat to human life.

He said when the state had sought such a permission from the apex court earlier, not only was it denied, but because of it a huge campaign was launched against Kerala at the national level.

The Supreme Court is hearing a batch of petitions on issues relating to orders passed by various civic bodies on the culling of stray dogs that have become a menace, especially in Kerala and Mumbai.

Some NGOs and individual petitioners have moved the apex court against the decisions of some high courts to allow municipal bodies to deal with the stray dog issue as per the rules.

The minister, in his statement, further said stray dog attacks were not confined to Kerala alone and were occurring in other states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also.

Nevertheless, the state government's Local Self Government and Animal Husbandry departments were working together to vigorously carry out sterilisation and vaccination of stray dogs in the state, the minister said.

In support of his claim, Rajesh said 4,70,534 dogs were vaccinated from September 1 last year to June 11, 2023. It is to be noted that according to the figures given by him, only 32,061 (less than 15 per cent) of these were stray dogs.

Furthermore, according to the data cited by him only 79,859 stray dogs were sterilised from 2016 to August 31, 2022. Additionally, 9,767 canines were sterilised between September 1 last year and March 31, 2023, he said.

However, the Animal Husbandry department last year had said that according to the last census of stray dogs in the country conducted in 2019, the numbers in Kerala were close to three lakh.

Rajesh also said 19 ABC centres are functioning in the state and steps were being taken to set up 24 more.

"Measures were also taken to catch stray dogs and put them in shelters, but there was considerable local opposition to the establishment of stray dog shelters and ABC centres in many places," the minister said.

Last September, the state government had announced the vaccination drive and also its attempts to find locations for more ABC centres in the wake of 19 deaths due to dog bites in 2022 till August end.

The 11-year-old boy was found grievously injured in some bushes several hundred metres away from his home.

Nihal, who suffered from autism, was missing from 5 pm on Sunday and a search party, comprising relatives, locals and the police, later found him in a grievously injured manner and took him to the hospital but his life could not be saved.

Blaming the state government for the boy's death, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan alleged laxity in implementing waste disposal measures and the ABC programme as well as in providing quality vaccines.

He alleged that the lack of proper waste disposal mechanisms and non-sterilisation of stray dogs for the last three years has led to an increase in their numbers.