coimbatore for the first time in tamil nadu the coimbatore city police have appointed animal welfare liaison officers at all its police stations to address the increasing number of animal cruelty cases in the citycoimbatore city commissioner v balakrishnan says two liaison officers at every one of the 15 police stations one nodal officer has been deputed in coimbatore city towards this cause last week a daylong training programme on animal crueltyrelated laws was imparted to the officers by a team of four experts from chennai advocates meenakshi murugan and madhumitha j and animal welfare activists sai vignesh of almighty animal care trust and antony rubin of hakuna matata animal trust the training was conducted in association with the nonprofit dogs of coimbatore an initiative under the vajra foundation which has been working on various animal welfare activities in the cityanimal welfare activists believe this is a milestone move that will help in the monitoring and mitigation of cases of cruelty inflicted on animals there has been a rise in humananimal conflict in the recent years owing to the increase in stray population and this has resulted in more instances of cruelty against animals says kesica jayapalan of dogs of coimbatore officials are usually too swamped with other cases to follow up on animal cruelty issues this is where these liaison officers will make a difference she saysbalakrishnan says training of the appropriate sections under animal welfare laws such as prevention of cruelty to animals act will help police take cognizable offences which are otherwise let off easily more seriously the two officers deputed in every station will be taking up animal cruelty cases only as and when they come and even if the one of busy the other will be available even if not physically over the phone so this will not affect their other prioritiesmost of the time the problem arises when people are feeding dogs and residents raise objections over it our officers will also work towards sensitising the public on dog behaviour and bust unreasonable fears he saysactivists also point out that several times the police are not adept with the various laws pertaining to animal cruelty which also results in several accused being let off easily and a training such as this could not only sensitise them but go a long way in ensuring crimes are lodged under appropriate sections of laws such as prevention of cruelty to animals act