13 trussed-up camels rescued, 3 cops suspended

GHAZIABAD: Thirteen camels being brought to Ghaziabad to be slaughtered were rescued by police early on Thursday. The SHO, a head constable and a constable of the Bhojpur police station were suspended by the district senior superintendent of police (SSP) for initial inaction in the case of the camel torture.
The camels were found brutally trussed up and packed into a single Canter truck by the Bhojpur police constabulary in a village close to the police station.The animals were so cruelly tied with ropes that they could not twitch a muscle. Their being forced into one truck worsened their plight.
Most of the camels appeared emaciated with ribs standing out as if the camels were hardly fed in recent days.
The rescue came about at 1am on Thursday after a phone call from the SSP's office. The delay in the Bhojpur police's action led the fleeing of the three men, who had driven the truck from Rajasthan and the suspension of the three cops.
Police could bring in veterinary doctors only after three hours. All the camels had both internal and external injuries, according to the examining doctor. Police sent nine camels to Delhi's Sanjay Gandhi Veterinary Hospital in the same truck they were found in.
One of the camels was tied to a stake inside the Bhojpur police station while three were handed over to villagers. Without any thought of what might happen to the poor animals, the cops left the three traumatized camels with the villagers. Newly appointed Bhojpur police station chief, Brijesh Sharma, confirmed it, saying that "maybe we will also later send these three camels to an appropriate hospital".
The government animal husbandry doctor of the area, Dr Mahesh Sharma, told TOI, "For one thing, we were brought in quite late. Besides, the camels were so tightly packed into the single vehicle that they could only breathe a little with difficulty, and were suffering from asphyxia".
They had lost so much heat that they had to be given medication to warm up their systems. "Intra-venous fluids were injected for the dehydration. Antibiotics, heart stimulants and life-saving drugs were also injected into the camels, besides vitamin B injections to help them to survive the cold," Sharma said.
Asked how many of the camels would survive the effects of the ordeal, Sharma said, "That will depend on what further treatment they get, and the condition each is in. Inside the truck, we could only carry out a cursory examination."
At Sanjay Gandhi hospital, sources said, "We can only do our best to keep them alive. We cannot predict anything right now. Their situation is grim. Actually, only one or two camels should be carried in one truck."
There seems to be a big racket in camels being brought for slaughtering to western UP. A case in point was 49 camels smuggled into Hapur on Jan 2.