Power, promises & poison: Chilling plan that saw 7 Telangana sarpanches cull 500 dogs

HYDERABAD: Telangana police are investigating the mass killing by lethal injection of at least 500 stray dogs in three districts of the state — Kamareddy, Hanamakonda and Jagtial — over past 10 days.Police say the barbarous killings were carried out by “professional dog killers”, allegedly at the behest of some newly elected sarpanches trying to fulfil promises to voters before gram panchayat elections in Dec last year.Police in the three districts, acting on complaints by animal rights activists, have registered cases against 17 people — at least seven of them sarpanches.Sources alleged that the sarpanches had assured the electorate that they would eliminate stray dogs and put an end to the monkey menace in villages once elected.According to police from Machareddy village, more than 200 dogs were allegedly killed in villages in Kamareddy district over past week. Police have named eight persons, including seven sarpanches — one each from Bhavanipet, Palwancha, Faridpet, Wadi and Bandarameshwarapally villages, and two from Hanamakonda district — and Kishore Pandey, a professional dog killer allegedly hired from Andhra Pradesh.The FIR was registered on Jan 12 based on a complaint by Adulapuram Goutham, animal cruelty prevention manager of Stray Animal Foundation of India. In his complaint, he also alleged he found dog carcasses dumped near Peddacheruvu, in Bhavanipet village, and later confirmed similar incidents in Palwancha and Faridpet.“We suspect that the sarpanches of Bhavanipet, Palwancha and Faridpet were involved in the killing of 244 dogs. Post-mortem examinations of the buried carcasses have been conducted and samples sent to laboratories for forensic analysis. A detailed investigation is underway,” a senior Machareddy police officer said.“About 150 dogs were killed in our village by administering injections about 15 days ago,” a villager from Nalgonda said on condition of anonymity. He added the newly elected sarpanch ordered killings as there had been many dog-bite cases in village, apart from injuries caused by dogs chasing people on bikes.In Hanamakonda district, police booked nine people for alleged killing of around 300 dogs between Jan 6 and Jan 8, while about 30 dogs were killed in Jagtial last month.