Lt Col (Retd) J C Khanna, member secretary of BSPCA, said that on the morning of Thursday, a day after the terrorist attacked the CST station, an animal lover brought an injured stray dog to the hospital. The dog had been hit by a bullet on its left shoulder and was in very weak health. Khanna said, “We have already taken X-rays and the report shows that no bullet is embedded in the animal’s body. That makes treatment easier, but its shoulder is badly injured.”

Then on Saturday afternoon, the BSPCA received a call from the Fire Brigade informing of several dead and injured birds in the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotel site.

“The Fire Brigade must have noticed the birds while sanitizing the hotels. Later that day, our ambulance picked 22 dead pigeons and 10 to 12 injured ones from both the sites. We also picked up an injured bat, but the mammal died in the hospital later.”

Khanna said that most birds would have died of asphyxiation or shock due to the sound of the grenade blasts. “The birds would have gone into a trauma due to the excessive sound and smell of explosives in the air.”

The injured pigeons at the hospital, he said, were either dehydrated, hurt or unable to fly out of trauma.