At least 300 stray dogs were allegedly poisoned to death by the local panchayat body and their bodies buried in a pit near Lingapalem village in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, the police and activists said on Monday.
The police have booked Lingapalem panchayat secretary M Sugunraj and the sarpanch under section 429 of IPC and Section 11(l) of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
“It all started with a tip-off during Bakrid (July 21) that dog meat was being sold in the village. We immediately formed a team of four activists and started our investigation. After a few days, we were informed by the locals that a foul smell was emanating from the lakebed, on the outskirts of the village. We dug up and found at least 300 dog carcasses there. Looking at the decay, we are guessing all the dogs could have been poisoned and killed around July 26,” said Challapalli Srilatha, an activist for Fight for Animals.
“We started gathering evidence and found out that poison was purchased from stores nearby. It was smeared onto darts and dogs were shot at by hired catchers. It is quite evident that the local panchayat is involved in it. They (panchayat body) receive money for vaccinating stray dogs, and they pay around ₹100 per animal to a dog catcher to kill them,” the activist alleged.
{{/usCountry}}“We started gathering evidence and found out that poison was purchased from stores nearby. It was smeared onto darts and dogs were shot at by hired catchers. It is quite evident that the local panchayat is involved in it. They (panchayat body) receive money for vaccinating stray dogs, and they pay around ₹100 per animal to a dog catcher to kill them,” the activist alleged.
{{/usCountry}}Animal activists went the following morning along with evidence to the Dharmajigudem police station to register a complaint.
“No one supported us. We were told that dogs being killed were not important, and they were preoccupied with murder cases. I sat there for 12 hours till they filed a zero FIR,” said Srilatha.
Confirming that the FIR has been lodged, Dharmajigudem sub-inspector, P Ramesh, under whose jurisdiction the area comes, said carcasses of close to 300 dogs were found. “Postmortem was conducted on Sunday on 14 dogs, and we have sent samples to a forensic lab. We can only comment once we receive the post mortem and forensic report,” he said.
Lingapalem panchayat secretary M Sugunraj denied the involvement of the panchayat body in the gruesome crime.
“Local pig catchers informed me that stray dog carcasses were found buried in a pit near Perantam tank on July 29. I was the one who immediately went to the local police station to file a complaint at night. This is gruesome, and I know that killing dogs is against the Panchayati Raj Act. I suspect aggrieved locals must have hired dog catchers to kill the stray dogs,” he claimed.
The activists claimed that the case was registered against the accused only when they approached district collector Karthikeya Misra and superintendent of police, Rahul Dev Sharma.
The activists said they would take up the issue in court. “We are waiting for the postmortem report. We will approach the local court if the accused aren’t brought to book,” said Srilatha.
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