Tamil Nadu: Pension plan for canine detectives

Ponni is the proud recipient of two all-India gold medals, a championship shield and several gold medals for achievements at the state level.

Ponni is the proud recipient of two all-India gold medals, a championship shield and several gold medals for achievements at the state level. She has also helped the Tamil Nadu Police catch the accused in several murder cases.

Oscar too has won the police gold medal once. He has helped the police force detect explosives. Ponni, a Doberman, aged 11 years, and Oscar, a Labrador, aged nine, are detective dogs. One sniffs at crime scenes and the other at explosives, camouflaged as harmless-looking packages.

Both have been ‘condemned’ after more than a decade of ceaseless toil. Normally, they would have been auctioned off to dog lovers, many of them even ending up in the streets, dying a far from glorious death. But now for the first time, the Tamil Nadu Government has decided to grant a decent ‘pension’ for retired detective dogs and continue to keep them in the police kennels where they grew up.

Ponni and Oscar will be the first from the Detective Dog Squad to get a pension of Rs 18,860 each annually. This will include Rs 44 a day for meals, Rs 200 per month towards grooming charges and Rs 400 every year towards vaccination charges.

The dogs had been certified as ‘condemned’ by the Veterinary College and were waiting to be auctioned off when the Government, last month, decided to allocate funds to take care of 11 retired police dogs every year.

Commissioner of Police Letika Saran said: “After the dogs are ‘condemned’ on medical grounds, as being ‘not fit for police jobs,’ they are treated quite badly. They are auctioned off and many are left on the streets to fend for themselves by the owners as they cannot afford to feed them the kind of food they are used to or give them medical treatment.” As part of the detective squad, the dogs get free medical treatment. So last year, a former Commissioner of Police sought the Government’s intervention on the matter.

The state DGP was pressed to inform the Government that the dogs of the detective squad which had been well trained and had served with exclusive skills were auctioned off to the public after they were certified as condemned. They were cruelly treated and the abandoned dogs went through great psychological misery. “These kinds of unethical activities are hurting the sentiments of the public as well,” the DGP’s letter pointed out.

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The two dogs will now lead a comfortable retired life. They will share a home with 21 other detective dogs. “They they will lead an easier life now without suffering stress,” said Radha Kannu, Sub-Inspector in charge of the police dog squad.