PETA seeks action against officials in Buldana dog deaths case

The police have already arrested five persons from Bhokardan in this connection.

Over 90 dogs were found dead in Girda forest in Buldana district on September 6 with their legs tied and mouths muzzled. The Buldana police had launched an operation to trace the culprits and had zeroed in on the five accused in Bhokardan in the neighboring Jalna district.

“The five persons have admitted that they had carried out the task under a campaign by Bhokardan civic body.. We have put then under arrest and they have been remanded in magisterial custody,” Superintendent of Police Dilip Bhujbal told The Indian Express.

He added: “We are seeking legal opinion about whether the officials, who ordered the campaign, have any vicarious responsibility. If they do have, we will also take action against them.”

Bhujbal had earlier said that the dogs were caught disposed off in a very brutal manner. “They were maimed first with the stroke of a stick on their legs and mouths stifled and they were later thrown in the forest in that condition. Most dogs had apparently died of suffocation in the vehicles in which they were transported in a heap,” he had said.

Meanwhile, Sondge, who had ordered the capture operation, said, “we had ordered the catching of stray dogs but we had made it clear that they should be released alive. The dogs found in Buldana district are not from Bhokardan.”

He, however, wasn’t able to say where the dogs from Bhokardan were released.

Sondge added: “We have been doing this campaign since 2017, when over 50 cases of dog-bites were repeated in the town.”

When pointed out that the accused from Bhokardan have admitted to the fact that the dogs were from Bhokardan, Sondge said, “I can’t comment on that.” Asked if the civic body had tried the option of sterilisation of dogs before catching them, Sondge said, “even if we do castration, the dogs don’t stop being attacking.”