In a horrific incident, at least 50 community dogs were burned alive at Keezhamur village near Melmaruvathur, about 50 km from Chennai early this month. The incident came to light after a villager informed an animal activist, P Aswath, who uncovered the tragedy four days later after the sedated canines were burnt alive on June 5.
While police said a few villagers killed the dogs which allegedly attacked herds of sheep and goats, according to Aswath the dogs were sedated with food laced with pesticides. Based on Aswath’s complaint, the Melmaruvathur police registered a case and booked Murali, Muthu, Murugadoss and Jeeva, all residents of the village in the case.
“They were doused with kerosene and set ablaze. Their allegation is that the dogs were threat to their goats and sheep. However, I didn’t see any dog bite marks on the animals. This mentality of people treating stray dog a menace is not new. It’s been imbibed in our heads. The moment we see a stray dog, we either complain and make a big fuss about it or kill it,” Aswath said.
Author of Savage Human and Stray Dogs, Hironmoy Karlekar, said that such incidents reflect the cruelty within the human beings, who kill animals, particularly dogs in this case, just to satisfy their cruel being.
“Killing dogs in such a manner is illegal. This is sadistic and most terrible incident. If the villagers say they did it to protect their domestic herds, then they should have gone to appropriate authority with certain evidence and it could have been notified as per the ABC Dogs Rules. law does not permit any one to kill community dogs and it is inhuman. They are society’s real night watchman. A proper investigation should be conducted and stringent punishment is sought for the perpetrators of this crime,” Karlekar told The Pioneer.
The Animal Birth Control (ABC) rules formulated under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 mandates killing of only rabies-afflicted, incurably-ill or mortally-wounded dogs. Regarding “trouble-causing” dogs, the Act says, on receipt of a complaint, the animal welfare board shall take away a dog and sterilise it, before releasing it in its familiar territory.
In 2012, 100 dogs were found in a dumpster in Maduravoyal after having ingested cyanide pills. Dogs from the areas of Sendurpuram, Vinayaganagar and Amman Nagar were killed and brought to nearby DRR Nagar, where they were buried near a neglected pond. They were apparently killed under local panchayat’s instructions.
Also recently, during the Velankanni festival, 50 community dogs were killed in order to simply “clear the road”. A large number of tourists across the country visit the locality around February, and local officials undertook the drive as a “beautification effort”.