The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has started picking up stray dogs, mostly sterilised in “illegal” manner and without any written orders, in the wake of the G20 Summit scheduled on September 8-10. “The People For Animals (PFA) was reached out by air travellers at Terminal 2 who spotted “screaming and yelping” dogs being “dragged by neck” using wires by “what looked like class 4 untrained workers” before being bundled into vehicles, People For Animals (PFA) claimed on Sunday.
Animal rights activists are up in arms over the move by civic bodies across the nation to remove stray dogs from roads falling on the routes of G20 delegates. However, recently, visuals from the city showing dogs being picked up mercilessly and locked in subhuman enclosures have surfaced online raising concerns on animal welfare and cruelty done to the dogs in the name of’beautification' of the prominent locations near the event venue.
In a statement PFA said another stray dog feeder also approached the PFA saying that a lactating mother with tiny pups was picked up from Pragati Maidan and “no one knows if all the pups have been taken or some carelessly left behind”.
The animal rights group said after the hasty withdrawal of its “ill-thought out order dated August 3” to remove stray dogs across 47 locations in the city, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has chosen to avoid sharing any plans or orders, and simply gone ahead to pick up dogs randomly.
The statement said on September 1, catching teams swooped down on two locations -- Pragati Maidan where the long suffering dogs had been picked just over a month ago, and the Airport terminal-2 area.
“Having got wind of their intentions, the animal welfare community had actually offered its help towards the safe collection and keeping of dogs by involving local feeders in the exercise. Spurning the offer, MCD went ahead to blatantly and illegally pick up mostly sterilised dogs,” it said. PFA said the airport area from where dogs have never been previously picked was targeted by three teams.