A distressing video of a black dog strangled by ropes and dragged out by two youth, has been doing the rounds on social media. The clip shows the dog resisting, and attempting to escape from the ropes, but is dragged on by the two men, who are oblivious to its suffering. At the end of the video, the dog collapses on to the ground, even as it is dragged out.
The video was taken by students of Vellore Institute of Technology.
On Wednesday, Blue Cross of India, an animal welfare organization, filed a complaint with the Thalambur police station against the Tambaram municipal corporation and Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) for allegedly capturing 11 dogs from the VIT campus in Chennai’s Kelambakkam. The complaint filed by Dawn Williams, General Manager of Blue Cross of India, also alleges that authorities killed the captured strays.
Speaking to TNM, “Students of VIT had mailed to Maneka Gandhi’s office about the animal cruelty and the office had asked me to conduct an investigation, after which I filed a complaint,” said Dawn William.
On Sunday, a driver and two contract workers were sent to VIT campus to catch the dog. “Tambaram municipality has no authority to catch dogs out of their territory and this is a violation. These people can catch dogs but they cannot strangle them to death. These people had 11 dogs. The whereabouts of these dogs are still a mystery,” said Dawn William.
The police complaint states, “Illegal capture and suspected killing of dogs in VIT college by VIT authorities and Tambaram Municipality.”
The suspects, he says, are Sundaram and Deva. “I filed a police complaint against VIT authorities for hiring unprofessional people, the driver and those two workers for executing the work given by the municipal authority. I have also filed a complaint against the Tambaram municipal authority,” said Dawn.
However, the police are yet to investigate the case and file a case against the college authorities or the Tambaram municipality. “According to the students, one dog is from inside and 10 other dogs were from the vicinity. Students said that the dogs were very friendly. There were no complaints of biting or chasing,” said Dawn.
He added that if educational institutions have a problem with animals, they can contact Blue Cross of India.
Despite TNM’s efforts to contact the Thalambur police station, officials remained unreachable.
The latest video comes more than a year after a dog was thrown off a terrace of a building by two medical students in Chennai. While the dog (later named Bhadra) was rescued and treated for her injuries, she was adopted by a Blue Cross volunteer.