Man held for killing stray dog released

Dozens of people from the neighbourhood reached the police station to protest the arrest

KARACHI:

A local court released on Friday a man accused of brutally killing a stray dog in Lyari.

The police had arrested Muhammad Hussain, a resident of Madina Masjid area in the remits of Baghdadi Police Station on Wednesday after a video of the incident was condemned by netizens.

An FIR was lodged against Hussain and others under Section 429 [mischief by killing or maiming any animal, a crime punishable with a sentence of upto five years], read with Section 34 [acts done by several persons] of the Pakistan Penal Code.

In the video some six persons could be seen pelting the dog with sticks and stones before strangling him to death, mentioned the FIR.

Dozens of people from the neighbourhood reached the police station to protest Hussain's arrest. They contended that killing a dog was not a crime.

"Five to six children were attacked by the stray dog," an area resident told The Express Tribune. District authorities have been alerted to the growing population of strays in the area but no one has addressed the residents' concerns, he added. It is the government's responsibility to provide a safe and secure environment for citizens, he said, pointing to other strays in the area.

"Killing the dog was not a fun game. It was the frustration against the system," said another resident.

While one police official told The Express Tribune that a search was underway to arrest other individuals in the video, another said the arrest was only made because of social media pressure. "I have never seen someone arrested for the killing of an animal," said the latter of the two who were both speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Dog culling

District authorities have also been known to kill hundreds of dogs much to the chagrin of rights activists and civil society members, who argue that dogs can be vaccinated instead to curb dog-bite cases as done globally.

One such campaign is carried out by the Rabies Free Karachi programme run by the Indus Hospital that aims to eliminate rabies by controlling the stray dog population through surgical sterilisation and mass dog vaccination.

However, in June this year, the Sindh High Court was informed that thousands of stray dogs have been killed across the province. The court was hearing a petition pertaining to the unavailability of anti-rabies vaccines (ARVs) in the province and the growing population of strays.

Meanwhile, according to the Sindh health department, over 17,000 dog-bite cases have been recorded in the past year. The actual figure might be higher, said health officials.

Over 8,800 such cases have been reported at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the largest tertiary care government hospital in the metropolis, alone.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2021.