Canine cull in Indian hi-tech hub outrages animal lovers

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Canine cull in Indian hi-tech hub outrages animal lovers

 

by Anil Penna

Wed Mar 28, 2:04 AM ET

 

 

 

BANGALORE (AFP) - Film footage showing dozens of lifeless dogs being dumped in a

pit outside India's hi-tech hub of Bangalore after being poisoned has outraged

animal rights activists.

 

The drive to crack down on strays in Bangalore and surrounding towns in southern

Karnataka state began on March 4 after the killing of two children by packs of

dogs triggered public calls for action.

 

But animal rights activists are furious after India's NDTV network showed

footage Monday of public workers feeding the dogs poison and of canine corpses

being tipped into an open pit.

 

The film, secretly shot by an animal rights activist, also appeared to fly in

the face of official promises of no mass killings.

 

" This is mass slaughter by an uncaring and arrogant government -- not the

selective culling of rabid and infected dogs, " said Savitha Nagabhushan, the

activist who filmed the killings on Sunday in Anekal town, outside Bangalore.

 

About 60 dead dogs were dumped into the pit on Sunday, she said.

 

" It's a painful death for the dogs, " she added, alleging workers were being paid

50 rupees (22 cents) for every dog they killed.

 

" It's against the PCA (India's Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act), it's

against morality, " said Nagabhushan, adding that police refused to register her

cruelty complaint.

 

Nagabhushan said she went to Anekal after being told cyanide was being used to

kill strays. She said she had earlier filmed a similar mass killing of dogs in

the Mandya district of Karnataka.

 

C.G. Suprasanna, an official in the municipal administration directorate, which

oversees all local bodies in Karnataka, denied authorities had sanctioned a mass

killing of street dogs.

 

Municipal workers only had orders for the " mercy killing " of rabid and infected

strays, which first had to be taken to animal shelters, and to sterilise and

free the rest, Suprasanna said.

 

Those who are flouting instructions " will have to face the music, " the official

insisted.

 

Bangalore authorities have summoned expert dog catchers from the Malabar region

of southern Kerala state to round up strays in the city, home to nearly seven

million people plus an estimated 76,000 stray dogs.

 

The dogs are a common sight in Bangalore, where they have had a free run of the

streets for decades, from suburban residential neighbourhoods and middle-class

shopping districts to the city centre.

 

" These dogs move in packs, they aren't meek animals, " municipal administration

official Suprasanna said.

 

Public anger over the problem was whipped up by the deaths in Bangalore of a

four-year-old boy last month and a nine-year-old girl a couple of months earlier

after they were attacked by neighbourhood packs.

 

" There was a barrage of questions from people who said we don't understand their

pain over the loss of children and demanded we do something, " Suprasanna said.

 

For the past decade, animal welfare centres have partnered the municipal

corporation in administering a birth control programme for stray dogs. But this

has proved ineffective.

 

" The government is taking the easy way out, " said Anuradha Sawhney, the head of

the Indian arm of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

 

Killing " doesn't end the problem, " she said, calling for a " very strict birth

control programme, " a clean-up of rubbish dumps where dogs feed and a campaign

to persuade people not to abandon pets.