The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report regarding a stray dog attack in which a 65-year-old man was mauled in a park inside the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus.

The CCTV footage of the horrific incident has gone viral on social media.

Expressing serious concern over the reported incident, the NHRC has issued notices to the chief secretary, Uttar Pradesh government, the vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, and the commissioner of Aligarh Municipal Corporation, seeking a detailed report of the incident within six weeks.

The state government is expected to inform the NHRC whether any relief has been given to the family of the deceased.

The NHRC has also called for the comments of the secretary, Animal Welfare Board of India, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, on the present status of the implementation of the provisions of law and their strategy, if any, to deal with the issue of the right to life of humans and protection from stray animals in the light of the recent increasing incidents of attack by stray animals on humans without any provocation.

The NHRC has observed that painful incidents such as the one reported by the media in the instant case indicate that there is a need to review the prevailing safeguards as this is not a problem of any one state or Union Territory, and the situation is grim and alarming. In the past also, the NHRC had taken cognisance of such incidents and called for reports from the authorities.

It has further observed that animal rights are advocated and supported in the same way as human rights because it is quite imperative to safeguard and protect animals from oppression, confinement and abusive treatment, which they may be prone to suffer at the hands of humans.