Unidentified persons allegedly trapped around 15 dogs, including puppies, on the premises of the Southern Railway headquarters and later killed them on Monday,
An employee of Southern Railway said a team of workers, believed to have been hired by the Chennai Corporation, visited the premises at 8 a.m. and trapped these dogs.
With the Corporation however handing over just one dog to the Blue Cross of India, the others are suspected to have been killed.
Corporation officials however denied killing any dogs on Monday. They said they had trapped only one dog, which was later handed over to the Blue Cross.
Conservancy workers in the locality recollected a similar incident six months ago when trapped dogs were allegedly killed on the spot by administering lethal injections, the Southern Railway employee said, convinced that these dogs have met with the same fate.
“I used to take food from home to feed a brown dog on the premises of the headquarters. The dog would always accompany the security personnel of the SBI ATM nearby. Today, the personnel said the dog was trapped along with the others,” said the visibly distraught woman.
Railway officials said they were not aware of any request given by security personnel on the premises to have the dogs trapped.
The civic body a few months ago procured eight new vehicles for administering animal birth control measures in the city and intensified the drive to control the city’s canines. Each of the 15 zones of the city has a vehicle to cope with the stray dog menace. Councillors too have been reporting incidents involving strays at the council meetings held in the past few months. Every day, the civic body traps more than 200 dogs, most of which are sterilised and released in the same locality.
The number of dogs subjected to animal birth control has increased this year when compared to last year. Corporation officials said the number of trained workers to trap dogs is inadequate, leading to insufficient animal birth control in the city.
