Hyderabad’s Necklace Road saw a unique protest-rally being held last month. For a change, people present were not protesting against issues they face as human beings, but they were raising their voice against the brutality inflicted on animals and pets.The rally was held by members of People for Animals (PFA) following a brutal incident in which a one-year-old dog which had recently delivered six puppies was beaten to death and thrown into a lake at Kukatpally by a resident.In the past few years PETA has registered several such incidents where "man’s best friend" has been traumatised, tortured and even killed. “People buy dogs, because it has become like a status symbol. They are happy with their pet until it’s small, cute and easy to handle, but refrain to take up the added responsibilities and abandon them eventually.”Dogs are being denied of their most basic right to freedom. A report released by PETA states how dogs are social animals and many dog owners keep them chained 24 hours a day. Depriving dogs of physical activities, entertainment and opportunity to socialise with their own kind is cruelty as this affects the animal both psychologically and physically, the report says.In 2013, Blue Cross of India busted a gang of six, for killing more than 200 dogs and burying them in a village in Tamil Nadu. According to media reports, three people out of the six were associated with the Panchayat and took this action after the residents of the area had registered a complaint of dog menace.The Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001, enacted under the provisions of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, stipulates euthanasia only for “incurably ill or mortally wounded dogs” making it illegal to kill pets.In 2013, TB Somanathan of Animal Life Protection Association said that according to him the worst cruelty a community dog faced was its relocation from its original locality to another one, after undergoing a birth control procedure. He said that dogs that underwent the surgery were generally weak and when they were placed in a new area, the existing community dogs either chased them away, or bit them, which lead to intense pain and misery and at times death.Shilpa Mahbubani who works for Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA), a NGO that concentrates on animal birth control and rescue and rehabilitation of animals, says that these days it is not just street dogs which need help but also the pets.She says that in their centres across Bengaluru, 50% of the cases handled were pet dogs which were injured and abandoned. “People buy dogs, because it has become like a status symbol. They are happy with their pet until it’s small, cute and easy to handle, but refrain to take up the added responsibilities and abandon them eventually.”Shilpa says that where there is a monetary gain or a lucrative value involved, there is cruelty. Breeding of dogs is an illegal trade but is still rampant. “People involved in such trades, practice inbreeding and are also aware of the consequence that such puppies born are born with defects.”Eventually when the buyer notices the defects, they abandon the pet, leaving it in a much more miserable condition. “Do not buy them if you can’t treat them well or if you plan to abandon them. And those genuinely interested, please adopt,” she says.Images for representationAlso read: Politics and religion hinder polio eradication efforts