FIR against dog abuser

‘The pet owner had kept the dog, which later died, in a pitiable condition’.

Due to the intervention of BJP MP Maneka Gandhi, an FIR was registered against an animal abuser in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, due to whose apathy, a dog of Lhasa Aposo breed died.

Sumant Shekhar, the secretary of Avaz Bejubano Ki, an organisation for the welfare of animals, received a message on 1 June that the pet owner, Rajkumar, was keeping a dog of Lhasa Aposo species in a pitiable condition.

On Thursday, the president of the animal welfare organisation, Vishal Mohan, reached the house of the pet owner for inspection and found the dog had become blind and his body was covered with maggots.

On seeing the terrible condition of the dog, he asked the owner to allow the organisation to let them take away the dog named Toffee for treatment.

The owner, however, did not give permission right away. After this, the president warned that the organisation could take action against such misbehaviour. The owner replied that he had the right to keep the dog in that certain way or kill it.

However, the organisation called the government veterinary hospital and took the dog for treatment. Dr Ghanshyam Kumar, a staff of the veterinary hospital, claimed that the dog was in a serious condition. He also stated that the dog had been kept in such a severe state for a long period. The dog later died on Friday evening.

An FIR was later lodged against the owner under the IPC Section 429 and Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals act 1960 after Maneka Gandhi spoke to the local SP as the local police were refusing to register the FIR.