MUMBAI: A South Mumbai resident has shot a video of stray dogs being caught and bundled away in a van outside the international airport terminal (T2) in the dead of the night.
While airport authorities said that their focus was on “wellbeing and protection” of the canines, an animal rights activist pointed out that it is illegal to relocate dogs according to Supreme Court directives.
Marine Lines resident Karl Mistry said that he was at the airport around 2.30am on July 8 when he saw a van, bearing registration number MH20 FB 6004, pull up outside T2; a few men got out and started chasing stray dogs.
“They managed to net one of the dogs and it was struggling desperately to free itself while the other dog ran away… I asked these men who had authorised them to do this, but they did not give any reply,” Mistry told TOI.
As he started filming the incident on his cellphone, he said a woman, who was part of the dog-catchers’ team, got aggressive. “She said she had videos of the dogs biting people, but when I asked her to show the videos, she refused,” Mistry said.
When he approached airport officials on duty at the time outside T2, they said they were not aware of what was happening. While he was speaking to the officials, the people who had come in the van hurriedly packed up and left with the dog they had caught.
Sandip Shah of animal welfare NGO Reshmo Jeevdaya who runs a free ambulance service for stray animals, said he visits the airport often, but has never spotted any aggressive dogs around the place.
A spokesperson of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport said they were taking a step for the betterment of the animals “by allotting a dedicated space within its premises as a dog shelter”.
The spokesperson said that this shelter would provide food, water and veterinary care for the animals. The reply did not, however, specify the location of the shelter where the dogs would be housed.
Lawyer and animal rights advocate at PETA India, Meet Ashar, said: “There is no reason to catch community dogs except for sterilisation after which they must be released at the same location. Relocating dogs is illegal… PETA India calls upon the airport authority to clarify and be held accountable for exactly what has happened to these dogs.”