Drive against stray cattle nets Vellore Corporation Rs 26,000 in two days

According to officials, the amount was collected from the owners of 10 animals that were found straying, with adult bovines being fined Rs 3000 and smaller animals being charged around Rs 2000. Calves were fined only Rs 1000, they added.

On Thursday, Corporation officials also captured 16 stray pigs which were then loaded onto a mini truck with orders that they be released in the Amirthi forest, around 20 km away. The owners were then issued show cause notices for allowing the animals to stray on the streets in Sathuvachari, officials said.

The drive comes at a time when locals complain that many streets in old Sathuvachari have turned into open cow sheds and how it becomes practically impassable during rain due to the slush from rainwater mixing with cow dung.

Corporation officials, however, said they were unable to house the captured cattle for more than two days as in addition to having to feed them, problems arose “as these domesticated animals refuse to accept feed from strangers after more than a day”. Further, officials said that as soon as the animals were caught, owners came up with various excuses for letting the domestic animals stray. The usual excuse is that the animals break their tether ropes and stray, they added.

When asked why stray livestock could not be let out in faraway areas to prevent them returning, officials said that problems occur when “some of our own subordinate staff reveal where the animals were released when their palms are greased by the owners”.