Cases of cruelty towards animals have been in the news for long now. But this case of animal cruelty meted?out by a government body is probably the most heartbreaking. The municipality is reportedly behind bringing the growing population of street dogs under control. But the way this was done has sent alarm bells ringing.
It's funny that despite all the advancement in Science that makes the process of population control possible with sterilization thereby causing zero harm to these innocent creatures with sterilization, Telangana municipality chose this particular route.
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This incident was brought to notice when a video shot by an animal activist of more than 40 dead bodies of dogs being carried in a municipality vehicle started doing rounds on Saturday.
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In Siddipet, Telengana, reportedly about 100 dogs were killed by poisoning over two days, some found dumped in a landfill. The act was allegedly carried out on the orders of Siddipet municipality. According to New Indian Express, a resident in the video can be heard sobbing and complaining about the incident.?
She said, I was shocked to find all my dogs gone. They were not aggressive and never created any menace. If people complained, they should have exercised animal birth control instead of injecting poison into them," as quoted by the New Indian Express.
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The workers in the video alleged that they were just carrying out orders.
The moment this news came to light, a team of activists gathered on the location to accumulate evidence and lodge a complaint. Under the Prevention of Cruelty against animal Act and section 428 and 429 of IPC an FIR was filed against unknown persons. A second incident of similar killings was reported soon after.
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"We filed a complaint on Saturday night and an FIR was booked. Considering evidence is crucial for conviction in such cases we went to look for the carcasses on Sunday morning and found them in the dump yard near Busaram forest. Just 30 minutes into the inquiry, we saw them bringing in a new batch of dead dogs in municipality vehicle," said an animal activist, Teja P, as quoted by New Indian Express.
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Another activist from Compassionate Society for Animals, Pravalika Nigam, reportedly said, "The second batch of dead dogs comes as a shocker considering we reported to them on Saturday itself. The municipality is not practicing?scientific measures of managing dog population anywhere in Telangana and culling dogs when man-animal conflict increase."
The treatment of street dogs by the municipality of Telengana is not isolated. As the activists rightly point out, failure to take any proper scientific measures to control dog population leads the municipal departments to resort to the ‘easier’ methods of doing away with problems.
Meanwhile, there are no stringent laws that strictly punish animal killings in our country.