Krishna Reddy, a resident of Hyderabad's Jillelaguda area, remembers what happened on the morning of May 15 clearly.
A stray dog that he had raised since the time it was a pup died after it was allegedly poisoned by the local municipal authorities in Meerpet.
"I went to the temple at around 7 am, and when I returned, I learnt that the dog was missing. I searched around frantically and couldn't find it. Later, I learnt that the municipal authorities had killed it," Krishna alleges.
"The people in my locality raised that dog from when she was a puppy. She was docile and would never harm anyone. We used to frequently give her milk and biscuits and she was free to walk into our house and make herself comfortable. She was very friendly and she would even climb on my bike sometimes. She would follow me and even greet me every day when I returned home," he adds.
In fact, Krishna said that just recently, the dog had given birth to four pups who still needed milk.
"After she was killed, two of those puppies died and we're caring for the other two. I don't even know whether complaining to the authorities is going to yield any results," Krishna says.
Activists irked
Animal rights activists in Hyderabad are up in arms and claim that the local municipal body allegedly poisoned 150 dogs.
Activists allege that the workers began culling dogs on Friday but that the main incident took place on May 15 at around 7 am.
"We saw CCTV footage of them catching the dogs with wires and ropes and then injecting a needle into the animal. We have learnt that it is a cheap sodium-based substance that has the capacity to kill a dog in minutes," alleges Saurabh Haldar from People For Animals (PFA).
"They later took the dogs and dumped them across three or four spots in the Kongara Forest area, which comes under the Forest Department. Each spot had around 30 to 40 bodies. The state department is also looking into the incident," he added.
Activists managed to get CCTV footage of the incident from a local resident and have shared screenshots of the same to the media.
Despite repeated attempts, TNM could not contact Balakrishna and K Mahender, the two sanitation supervisors overseeing Jillelaguda municipality and accused by activists of culling the dogs.
However, according to reports, they have been suspended since.
Activists also said that a police case was booked against them under Section 429 of the IPC (Mischief by killing or maiming cattle or any animal of value) and relevant sections of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
While the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) oversees large parts of Hyderabad, an official said that the area did not come under their jurisdiction and was governed by the Meerpet Municipality.
Background
This is not the first time that such incidents have occurred in Hyderabad.
In the lead up to US President Donald Trump’s daughter and advisor Ivanka’s visit to Hyderabad for the GES Summit, the Telangana government had been bending backwards to give the city a facelift.
Amidst this, shocking allegations had emerged about stray dogs being rounded up and poisoned by the GHMC ahead of Ivanka’s visit.
However, officials later claimed that this was part of a routine Animal Birth Control (ABC) Programme, and that the timing had nothing to do with Ivanka Trump’s visit to the city.
During a recent gathering with citizens, Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Minister KT Rama Rao had said that roughly 2,000 dogs were adopted by homes across the city as part of the GHMC's 'Maa Inti Nestham' scheme, which encourages people to adopt strays.