City anchor: ‘Rescue’ of 8 dogs from South Delhi house goes to court

Together with a Delhi Police team, animal welfare organisation People for Animals (PFA) searched an East of Kailash house on November 26 and "rescued" eight dogs, claiming they had been kept there for the purpose of "illegal breeding".

The Amar Colony police registered a case under Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act against the owner Dr Rajesh Singh. A senior police official said "the matter is now in the court".

The police and PFA officials said they were alerted by a neighbour who claimed the dogs — among them a St. Bernard, Mastiff, Boxer, Pug, Pomeranian and Chihuahua — were kept in a "horrible condition", and that the place had an unbearable stench of "dog pee and poo".

The neighbour, Mita Dasgupta, claimed she had approached the owner several times "to get better life conditions for the dogs".

"The dogs were rarely taken out for walks and each of them looked thin and ill-kept," Dasgupta alleged.

The PFA team led by Saurav Gupta, together with policemen from the Amar Colony police station, searched the house and "recovered about 20 cages in the house and seized eight dogs that were found in cages".

Gupta said: "The owner was running an illegal breeding centre in the house. All these dogs cost upward of Rs 40,000 each in the market."

The dogs were taken to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital and are currently under observation. "The medical report is yet to come and will be submitted in court. Prima facie the doctors have told us that the dogs were brought in a bad condition, and two of them have had fever. The medical report will ascertain illegal breeding," Gupta said.

The owner, Dr Rajesh Singh, rejected charges of ill-treating the dogs. "I am a practising child specialist and I know my law well. The PFA has got into this habit of blackmailing dog lovers. I refuse to plead guilty because I am not in the wrong here," he said.

According to Dr Singh, he has proof to back his case that he never ill-treated his pets. "It is, in fact, the PFA team and whoever they came with who made unauthorised entry into my house, and even my bedroom, in my absence. I have CCTV footage to show how they ill-treated my dogs and dragged them away," he said.

"These dogs have been my pets for the last seven years, and I am aware of the law pertaining to caging of animals. The cages are big enough to allow free movement of dogs. I want the police to investigate this case properly and book the ones guilty. I will produce all proof in court," Dr Singh said.

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