The Bangalore corporation’s decision to capture and “cull” all street dogs following the recent mauling and death of two children by two separate packs of dogs in the city’s suburbs has sparked off outrage in the city.

It has even prompted Governor T N Chaturvedi to write a letter to Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy advising the need for more sanity and science. “Even when emotions are aroused in a situation, it is for the authorities to keep their cool and find a middle path, which will yield some fruitful results,” the governor has stated while expressing unhappiness with the corporation’s functioning.

Despite City Commissioner K Jairaj arguing that “no culling is taking place, only the animal birth control programme is being implemented,” dozens of dog carcasses have been found in corporation garbage-dumps in two different places on the outskirts of Bangalore in the last two days. Between March 3 — when the corporation began its drive — and March 6, as many as 1200 stray dogs from across the city were captured and sent to four dog pounds maintained by animal-rights groups. Since March 6, the pounds that were running to full capacity began turning away the corporation’s 30 dog vans, each tasked to “capture” 1000 dogs per day.

Animal-rights groups are now reporting that the stray dogs turned away from the pounds are being killed or being released en masse into the outskirts of Bangalore in violation of laws preventing cruelty to animals. On Friday, animal rights activist Sujaya Jagadish, who followed a stray-dog van around the northern parts of the city reported that a group of over 40 dogs captured through the day were let loose on the outer ring road at the end of the day.

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