There has been a stir in the state after allegations of alleged mass killing of stray dogs in Kamareddy and Hanamkonda districts of Telangana have surfaced. According to news agency PTI, around 500 dogs have been poisoned to death in different villages in the last one week. It is alleged that this action was taken to “fulfill” the promises made during the recently held Gram Panchayat elections, in which assurances were given to deal with the problem of stray dogs.
Complaints of such incidents have been registered in Bhawanipet, Palavancha, Faridpet, Wadi and Bandarameshwarpalli villages of Kamareddy district. Animal welfare activist Adulapuram Gautam (35) lodged a police complaint on January 12, alleging that street dogs were killed with planning in these villages. He claims that around 200 dogs died within just two-three days. According to the complaint, on January 12 at around 3 pm, they had received credible information about the mass killing of dogs and it is alleged that all this was done at the behest of the concerned village sarpanches.
Police sources told PTI that a case has been registered against six people, including five village sarpanches and another person Kishore Pandey. It is being alleged that Kishore Pandey was “hired” to kill dogs. The complainant says that the dogs were given poisonous injections, due to which they died. According to the complainant, when he reached Bhawanipet with a friend at around 6 pm on the same day, he found dead bodies of several dogs lying near a temple.
Describing these acts as cruel, Gautam has demanded strict legal action against the accused. According to police officials, the bodies of the dead dogs were buried on the outskirts of the villages, which were later taken out by veterinary teams and sent for postmortem. “Samples of the internal organs have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory to ascertain the exact cause of death and the type of poison used,” a senior police officer told PTI. Officials said that notices have been issued to the accused.
Villagers who spoke to PTI say some elected representatives took such steps to keep promises made to villagers during the panchayat elections. According to sources, “Before the elections held in December last year, some candidates had promised to end the problem of stray dogs and monkeys. Now they are ‘fulfilling’ those promises by allegedly killing stray dogs.”
Even before this, allegations of poisoning of about 300 stray dogs had come to light in Shyamapet and Arepalli villages of Hanamkonda district between January 6 and 9. In that case, the police had registered a case against nine accused including two women sarpanches, their husbands, gram panchayat secretaries and some others. At present, no official response has come from the accused sarpanches or village representatives.
Supreme Court’s comment
Amidst these incidents, the Supreme Court has also adopted a strict stance on cases related to stray dogs. The court has said it may consider directing states to pay “hefty compensation” in dog-bite cases and fixing accountability of those who feed dogs. The court has expressed displeasure over the abysmal failure of rules related to management of stray animals in the last five years. The bench said that the impact of dog-bite is lifelong and serious action needs to be taken.
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