BENGALURU: A month ago, a retired NIMHANS professor shot a stray female dog with an airgun in Jayanagar. A week ago, a dog was beaten to death with a bamboo stick. On Wednesday, in another horrifying incident at Nagaraj Layout in Whitefield, three puppies were beaten with iron rods and are fighting for survival at the Bangalore Pet Hospital. The puppies are barely one-and-a-half months old.
Around noon on Wednesday, four children aged between 7 and 15 years started throwing stones at three puppies sleeping behind some bushes in a vacant plot. The pups began screaming in pain, and when some residents came out of their houses to check, they saw two boys throwing stones at them, while the other two were dragging a pup by his hind limb to get it out of the bushes. However, when the residents came out and screamed at the boys, they ran away.
It did not stop there. The boys returned at 7.30pm and again attacked the pups, leaving one pup greviously injured and screaming. By the time the residents came out, the boys had gone. “A construction worker told us it was the same boys. One of the pups was bleeding profusely and we took him to hospital,” said Jayeta Datta, a resident.
The torture continued on Thursday. The same boys were back, attacking the other two puppies with sticks and stones, and running away. The residents spotted the same gang and wanted to catch them, but they were quick to get away. “Thursday’s incident was horrific. I couldn’t even hold the puppy as he was bleeding very badly. His jaw had broken and the other puppy’s head was bleeding. With the help of Whitefield Rising member Shailaja Rangarajan, we managed to take both to hospital,” said Datta.
On Friday, Datta filed a complaint at Whitefield police station, which was taken as a non-cognizable report, and no action has as yet been taken against the boys. The police are trying to check nearby CCTV cameras.
Dr Lohith, senior veterinarian, Bangalore Pet Hospital, said, “The puppies are a little better and stabilising. They suffered multiple injuries, and one is severely hurt while the other has a jaw fracture. Two are doing fine while the third is recovering.”