NEW DELHI: A group of people gate-crashed a seminar on the menace of stray dogs organised by former Union minister Vijay Goel at Constitution Club on Wednesday to register their protest. The animal lovers argued with Goel and other seminar organisers, seeking an opportunity to present their views. A video of the ruckus showed two women slapping each other. Social activist and animal lover Yogita Bhayana alleged the organisers misbehaved with them.
“We wanted to speak our mind. Rather than giving us a platform, they started thrashing us,” she alleged.
Bhayana claimed the organisers had put up hoardings with the face of a “ferocious dog” across the city to promote the seminar. They wanted to discuss something on the line of an “anti-street dog” drive, she claimed.
Goel said in a that statement the seminar was held to discuss a solution to the menace of stray dogs biting people but the “so-called” animal lovers disrupted the seminar. He said he had booked the Speaker’s Hall for the seminar but people of the Constitution Club informed him that MP Maneka Gandhi had also booked the Deputy Speaker’s Hall at the same time.
“We are animal lovers, we are not anti-animal. This campaign launched by us should not be considered anti-animal,” Goel said.“We all agree that the number of stray dogs should not increase. The only solution is that dogs should be sterilized as much as possible,” he added.