2 dogs dead, 1 rabid: Netajinagar, Wanowrie societies barking mad at animal activists
Residents of Netajinagar, Wanowrie bitten by rabid dog; cops now involved
Two dogs, at least one of them rabid, were found dead near Netajinagar society in Wanowrie by employees of an animal welfare organisation in the early hours of Tuesday.
The bodies were discovered hours after Meher Mathrani, animal welfare officer and a resident of the society, identified as Sweety, had filed non-cognisable offences against each other. Another resident of Netajinagar society, Leah Shetty, 62, also approached the Wanowrie police claiming that she and her son were beaten up by members of the society for feeding the dogs in the locality.
One of the stray dogs in the locality had gone rabid and attacked three children on Saturday and then, two more children and two women on Sunday, according to S Bavkar, the secretary of the Netajinagar society.
Based on the discovery of the dead bodies of two dogs in the locality, Mathrani has asked the police to file a separate cognisable case in the matter.
“We found the body, did a postmortem and sent the body to ResQ Charitable trust where a brain tissue sample was taken. We just received confirmation of it being positive for rabies.
“We now intend to move the police and then the courts to direct the society members to follow the law.
“It’s fine to show bravado and let egos take over, but when there is a situation as serious as this, the society must allow professionals and people with sound animal experience to handle the situation,” she said.
Bavkar, however, said, “One should have seen the way these people were bitten. People who had gone with them to get injections could not bear the sight. Mrs Shetty, who feeds the dogs, had come up with reasons for why she could not feed the dogs outside the society. However, I do not believe there is a reason to feed them inside the society premises.”
“My heart went out to the children and even the adults who were exposed and bitten by an unfortunate dog. Another concern is the lawlessness, mob mentality and violence propagated in the society, whether it is randomly hitting all the dogs or assaulting me,” Mathrani added.
Senior PI A Gavare of Wanowrie police station confirmed that Mathrani had approached the police. However, the police could not comment on the matter as the FIR has not yet been registered.
The animal society members allege that society members have killed the dogs.
