KANPUR: A terrible case of animal abuse has come to light in a wealthy area of Kanpur, where a group of men were allegedly employed to catch and kill stray dogs. Animal welfare groups are very angry with videos taken by people who live in the Emerald Gulistan residential complex, which has around 200 flats, 90 bungalows, and 100 villas. These groups say that a number of dogs have perished in the process, and their carcasses have been thrown away in distant regions.
After getting the alarming recordings from residents, Vidya Bhushan Tiwari, the head of the animal welfare group “A Faithful Hand,” made an official complaint to the police. The police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against six people whose names are not known in response to his allegation.
Tiwari said that the “catchers” pretended to be part of the Kanpur Nagar Nigam’s (KNN) official cattle-catching team to trick people. He said that some residents paid the men between ₹500 and ₹2,000 for each dog they caught since they wanted to get rid of the stray dogs. Tiwari added, “In reality, these men were hired privately to kill or hurt the animals.”
The police in Kanpur have said that they are looking into the situation. “The cops got a call about pets being treated badly and killed. “Under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, we have opened a case,” said Rajesh Pandey, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police. He went on to say that the police are using CCTV footage and information about the cars in the videos to help them find the suspect. Pandey said, “They will be arrested soon.”
Sonal Gupta from “A Faithful Hand” talked about the disturbing video that made her group call the police. “One clip shows the dogs lying still, unable to move. Another shows the men putting the animals in bags, and a third includes audio of them asking each other how many had been “packed,” she added. Gupta said that at least ten dogs had died in the process, and their bodies were later thrown away along the Ganga and in other hard-to-reach places.
R.K. Niranjan, the chief veterinary officer of Kanpur Nagar Nigam, has strongly denied that any city workers were involved in the incident. “We have watched the videos. He claimed that the people in the videos are not connected to the KNN’s cattle-catching team, which suggests that they are part of a criminal gang. “The nagar nigam only sterilizes stray dogs and then lets them go.” There is no requirement to hurt or kill them.
This event has brought back an important discussion on how to handle stray dogs in cities. Animal rights activists say that aggressive and inhumane techniques are not only against the law, but they also don’t get to the heart of the problem. “The Supreme Court and the Animal Welfare Board of India have made it very clear that sterilization and vaccination are the only legal ways to do this.” Gupta said, “What happened in Jajmau is against the law and cruel.”
The police are now trying to find out if the residents worked together to hire the men and who was in charge of the operation. ADCP Pandey said, “We are looking at the video and talking to people in the area to find out who called these people.” “Those who did the act and those who hired them will both be held responsible.”
“A Faithful Hand” has officially asked the police to find the dogs’ bodies and undertake autopsies to find out how they died. The group has also written to the district government, asking them to make sure that animal welfare regulations are followed more strictly so that things like this don’t happen again.