The Telangana Police registered cases against nine people, including two gram panchayat sarpanches and their husbands, in connection with the killing of around 120 stray dogs with lethal injections between January 6 and 8 in two villages of Hanumakonda district.
According to police in Hanumakonda, the carcasses of 120 dogs were recovered from the Shayampet and Arepally gram panchayat limits.
A police officer from Hanumakonda said, “There were likely 50-60 dogs per village, and all these dogs seemed to have been killed by lethal injection with the help of village authorities.”
Based on the complaint, police booked cases under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. The FIR was lodged after an NGO, the Stray Animal Foundation of India, lodged a complaint demanding action on those who poisoned the dogs. The complaint said the government should have implemented animal control measures, including sterilisation and vaccination, to help people deal with the stray dog menace.
“The dogs were injected with poison and their food was also poisoned,” the Hanumakonda police officer said. Police have also started an awareness campaign to prevent the mistreatment of stray animals, officers said.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would ask states to pay “heavy compensation” for dog-bite incidents as it flagged concern over the lack of implementation of norms regarding stray animals in the past five years. A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and N V Anjaria also said that “responsibility and accountability will be fixed on those who are feeding these stray dogs”.
