In a tragic turn of events, a Kamothe resident’s request for e-pass to take her pet dog to a vet was rejected four times, which resulted in the cocker spaniel passing away on Saturday morning.
Shubha Chandran, a resident of Sector 17, applied for e-pass four times between 6.30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Thursday. Her pet dog Joey, who would have turned eight next month, was unwell for a few days and having trouble breathing.
Ms. Chandran consulted his doctor in Kharghar on a video call, who prescribed some medicines and asked her to bring Joey to the clinic as his breathing was abnormal. He suspected bronchitis and feared Joey could have a cardiac arrest. Ms. Chandran then applied for an e-pass, which got rejected thrice for reasons such as “lack of supporting documents”, “irrelevant” and “needless”.
“In the fourth request, I asked them to approve as Joey was critical. But by 7.30 p.m, it was again rejected,” Ms. Chandran said. Joey, who was adopted when he was 40 days old, fell while walking on Saturday and breathed his last around 10.30 a.m. “I wouldn’t want to blame anyone at this point. I probably shouldn’t have waited for an approval and should have just taken him. I wouldn’t want any other animal to suffer, just because it’s not a human,” Ms. Chandran said.
Harish Iyer, an activist and her neighbour, lashed out at the Navi Mumbai Police on Twitter. “Dear @Navimumpolice Joey passed away this morning due to cardiac arrest. His human had tried procuring a pass from you to visit the doctor, but you denied them the pass because you thought it was “irrelevant or needless”. Had Joey found help in time he would have lived (sic),” he tweeted.
The police replied, “Extending deepest sympathy for you in your loss. We are sensitive in such situations. We are always there for our Citizens to serve our best in extreme emergencies (sic).”
