Chennai: 25 stray dogs poisoned, dumped in Cooum river Photo Credit: BCCL Carcasses of the dogs were recovered from the Cooum River (Representative Image)

Chennai: In the wake of animal rights activists raising a hue and cry over the illegal killing of as many as 25 stray dogs, bone-chilling accusations have come to light against the Chennai Corporation. If reports are to be believed, the civic body in Tamil Nadu's state capital captured mongrels from Nungambakkam and neighbouring areas along the Cooum on Greams Road.

Locals claim that these dogs were killed and their carcasses dumped in the Cooum river on Friday. Sai Vignesh, the founder of Almighty Animal Care Trust visited the spot on the banks of the Cooum river and after taking stock of the situation, registered a police case against the Chennai Corporation.

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Speaking to The Hindu, Vignesh said that the bodies of the stray dogs will be handed over to the Vepery Government Veterinary College by Blue Cross on Sunday following which a post-mortem will be conducted on them. He added that it is still unclear as to which poison was used to kill the dogs but a search operation has been launched to check whether more strays were culled by the civic body. The practice of killing stray dogs is in violation of Supreme Court guidelines and is a punishable offence under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act as well as the Indian Penal Code (IPC), he said.

Data accessed from public archives suggests that there were about 3,000 licensed pet dogs in Chennai followed by a stray population of 1.85 lakh. In fact, in accordance with their stray dog helpline '1913', the Chennai Corporation has been successfully sterilising as many as 20,000 dogs each year.

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