Residents had complained to panchayat about dog menace, but did not expect the animals to be killed
In an act of shocking brutality, over 100 dogs were
culled and their bodies buried near a pond in this village, nearly 20 km
from Chennai, over the last three days. The poisoning of the dogs,
according to residents, was carried out at the orders of the Panchayat.
Nearly 25 carcasses of dogs that were culled on Monday were recovered by
the Blue Cross of India and brought to the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and
Animal Sciences University in Vepery.
While villagers
claim that nearly 200 dogs were killed, Blue Cross puts the number of
the animals poisoned at around 100. Dogs from the areas of Sendurpuram,
Vinayaganagar and Amman Nagar were killed and brought to nearby D.R.R
Nagar, where they were buried near a neglected pond.
“On
Saturday and Sunday, three men and a woman came in a tractor loaded
with over a hundred bodies of dogs and buried them here. This happened
at noon when most people were at work,” said a resident. “They told us
it was as per panchayat instructions. Since the tractor bore the
panchayat sticker, we did not interfere. They assured us the pit had
been dug really deep so there would be no smell.”
The
act came to light when the same tractor arrived at the same place, this
time with 24 carcasses, on Monday morning and one of the residents
informed Blue Cross. “When we rushed there, they had already injected
the dogs with cyanide and some dogs were gasping for breath. We couldn't
save them though we brought all the bodies to TANUVAS,” said Dawn
Williams, General Manager, Blue Cross of India. Mr Williams also exhumed
another carcass, buried much earlier, and brought it to TANUVAS for a
post-mortem examination.
A complaint was lodged and
Poonamallee police registered an FIR against six people, two of whom —
Elangovan, supervisor of sweepers in Poonamallee panchayat and
Kalainesan, driver of the tractor — have been arrested. The others,
mostly people hired to catch the dogs with iron hooks and inject them
with cyanide, ran away as soon as residents and Blue Cross workers
raised an alarm.
“The panchayat president has been
out of the city for the past three days and the workers took the action
without consulting him. They did this only because the residents had
complained of the dog menace,” said T. Mahesh, advocate for the accused
party. Every family here owns dogs and most don't know how to take care
of them. They are not sterilised and they bite us, he added.
Residents
acknowledge the dog menace exists in the area. The slaughter houses and
garbage in the area have increased the number of dogs in the last few
months, they said.
“Many of us here are night shift
workers in companies and it very difficult, to walk along or cycle past
this stretch to get home at nights, because the dogs attack us or chase
us. We had complained to the panchayat and the officials said they would
take care of it,” said another resident. “But we never wanted them to
be killed and dumped like this,” he added.
Some
residents said they were told the injections would only drug the dogs
and they would be dropped off on the outskirts. "Only when we saw the
tractor lowering the bodies into the pit, did we realise they had lied
to us. They had not even spared puppies,” said a student.
Police
officials in Poonamallee said that investigations were on. “We have
sent the cyanide bottles for examination to know how the panchayat
workers procured them,” said Shankar, the investigating officer.
Some
residents also say the culling here is not a new thing in the area and
happens once in every few months. “But this is the first time they
killed even dogs that were being taken care of by various families,”
said Geetha, a resident.
“We did not visit our
native village because our dog was to give birth. But a woman came today
and injected my dog when she was sleeping near the gate. Before, we
knew what was happening, the dog had died. They put the carcass on the
tractor,” said Janaki, a resident.
“There are ways to
deal with dogs,” said Mr. Williams said. "We urge residents to never
kill dogs because that creates a vacuum and encourages dogs from other
localities to come in. These new unfamiliar dogs often turn into
nuisance."
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/article3394902.ece
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