‘Burned, raped & poisoned’: Incidents of cruelty against stray dogs on rise in state, say rescuers

LUCKNOW “An entire dog family was subjected to unspoken brutalities within the Lucknow University campus. Several of the puppies were poisoned while the mother was burnt so badly that she hardly had any skin left. Last week, we rescued the mother and her only alive puppy. They are still recovering. In another such case from Alambagh, a stray dog was repeatedly raped. Certainly, cruelty against dogs is witnessing a serious increase,” said Vishakha Shukla, founder of ‘Nawabi Tails’ rescue shelter.

When queried about the reasons behind a concerning spike in such crimes, she said, “I feel the cases of cruelty against dogs has gone up drastically since the 2022 case of a pitbull mauling its owner to death. It’s not just limited to strays but pet dogs are also bearing the burnt. Astonishingly, a large number of such cases are being reported from urban localities and apartment complexes. Just this Friday, I had to intervene in a case in Indiranagar where the owners were tying their black labrador outdoors all day long. However, in cases of pet dogs, only the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animal (SPCA) can initiate a rescue.”

Earlier this year, a similar case was reported from Agra by the Casper’s Home Trust, an animal welfare trust. A female dog and her puppies were found abandoned in a cardboard box while the male dog was lying unconscious. The puppies were aggravated from being restricted in a box for hours. Later, the mother dog was administered treatment in view of her critical condition. In yet another gruesome incident, an FIR was filed against a man in Mathura for pouring petrol over a stray and trying to set it on fire. Somehow, a Good Samaritan was able to rescue the dog by putting out the flames with his jacket.

According to activists, instances of abandonment of dogs are also on the rise. In the past year, several strays have been found in near-death conditions by rescuers. “Such incidents seem to be the outcome of the misinformation around dog attack cases. People often don’t bother to pay heed the other side of the story. We receive so many videos showing people hitting, kicking, or bothering strays. When the dog retaliates, it is labelled as aggressive or mad,” Shukla added.

Rescuers believe that reports of dog bites and animal aggression spread misinformation as they leave out the other side of the story. It is hardly ever mentioned why the dog turned ferocious in the first place. It’s like what novelist Chinua Achebe said — ‘until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter’.