Stray dogs being slit, stitched in cruel act in Punjab

A locality in Punjab’s Amritsar is gripped with an uncanny situation of several wailing stray dogs on streets bandaged all over the stomach. It’s become a common sight in the last two months as many stray dogs being left to die.

It is now learnt that all this was the handiwork of a youth who would first slit the stomach of stray dogs and later stitch it up with surgical equipment. The wound was then covered with bandage wrapped all around the lower back of the stray dog. Many would die after a few days of pain.

The youth is said to be an aspiring doctor and is pursuing a degree in medicine, although the veracity of the charges against the youth are so far only limited to the version of the local residents.

The motive behind such repeated incidents of cruelty towards animals so far remains an enigma. An Amritsar-based social activist, Simardeep Singh, has shot off a letter to the local deputy commissioner and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi seeking a probe into the ‘mysterious developments’.

Singh has sought their urgent intervention to check this cruelty. The local police, it is learnt, have declined to interfere in the case on the premise that the matter has jurisdiction outside police preview.

Residents of the area are at a loss to figure out the strange behaviour of the youth. They say  bandaged dogs and carcasses on streets had become a common sight.

According to Singh, a medical student could be behind all this. He claims he confronted the youth on the issue who informed him that he had operated on the dog since he had a growth on the body which, if not removed, could have caused abnormality.

The youth went silent after his ‘weird’ logic became the talk of the town. Killing strays is covered under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Such acts of cruelty fly in the face of the citizens’ duty enshrined under Article 51A (g) of the Constitution which asks for compassion for all living beings.