Owner under probe as 2 puppies ‘fall’ to death from 8th-floor flat

GURUGRAM: Two Shih Tzu puppies fell to the ground from an eighth-floor flat in Emerald Estate (Sector 65) and died in front of horrified morning walkers on Monday, triggering a police investigation into the role of their owner after allegations that the dogs were thrown from the apartment’s balcony.
The puppies, a male and a female, were 8-9 months old and died of cardiac attack because of the high-altitude fall, said Dr Vivek, who conducted their autopsy.The puppies were, otherwise, well-groomed and healthy and bore no sign of cruelty, the doctor said.
The death of the puppies led to anger in the housing society, which spread to social media as residents sought an investigation by animal rights activists and police to get to the bottom of the matter. Police stepped in after a complaint from Nikhil Mahesh of the NGO, Umeed for Animals Foundation.
Their owner, an Iraqi citizen who works as a translator at a leading private hospital in the city.
Nikita Kapoor, a resident who saw the puppies fall in front of her, said, “I was on a morning walk with other women residents when one puppy landed on the compound before me and died. Within 2-3 seconds, the other fell and died in the same way. I looked up but saw no one. It was around five minutes that the pet parent (owner) was seen at the balcony of the eighth-floor flat. But he did not come down,” she said. Chetna Joshi, an animal rights activist, said the police must take swift steps in the case.