Hyderabad: The GHMC is culling stray dogs and pigs at night at its dog pound.
Late on Saturday night, Chandanagar resident J. Amarnath, who is interested in animal rights, heard some peculiar sounds as he passed by the GHMC dog pound in Kukatpally.
Unable to ignore it, Mr Amarnath parked his vehicle and went to the pound only to be stopped from entering it by one of the employees.
Suspecting something fishy, Mr Amarnath told DC that he barged into the pound to find three persons euthanising stray dogs with injections.
As Mr Amarnath questioned the people present, started taking videos and clicking pictures with his phone, he was confronted by the employees, following which he called his friend, Aravind, who reached the spot.
Mr Amarnath said, “There were at least 25-30 dead dogs, may be more, when I entered the pound. There were injection drugs and other material required for killing the dogs. I also saw some pigs kept at the pound for killing.”
He said, “After a while I called Kukatpally police and a police official visited the pound. He told us that we should not trespass into GHMC premises after which we came out. Soon we heard a pig squealing. My friend again barged in and saw a pig being killed with an injection. We were told by police that we can come on Sunday morning and file an FIR. On Sunday the police did not accept the FIR.”
When contacted, GHMC west zone assistant director (veterinary) Dr Abdul Wakil said, “Only 7-8 dogs were killed. These dogs had a history of biting people or attacking them. Some of them were sick and injured. They were observed by our staff for over three months and then the decision was taken to kill them.”
He said this was a rare step which had to be taken. In the west zone, from just April this year, nearly 3,000 complaints were received from people regarding stray dogs and pigs, he said.
“Euthanising is not outside the purview of Animal Birth Control Rules for dogs or the GHMC Act. Stray dogs are euthanised in other zones of GHMC as well,” Dr Wakil said.
The Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules says that “incurably ill and mortally wounded dogs” can be euthanized but not in front of other dogs.
