In a highly disturbing video that surfaced on Twitter on Saturday, a group of workers can be seen mercilessly dumping a heap of dog corpses into a truck. The girl, who is shooting the video, is heard sobbing, as the workers tell her that they have been asked by the municipality authorities to slaughter the dogs. The girl further points to 2-3 dogs and says that she fostered the animals, and asks the workers how they even had the heart to kill the animals, no matter who gave them the permission to do so.

The video from Siddipet shows a total of 40 dead dogs, which the workers claim were slaughtered on behalf of the Siddipet civic body in order to curb dog menace in the area. It was only last Wednesday that the civic authorities in Telangana’s Vikarabad were pulled up after 30 dogs were found slaughtered and dumped in a government dumpyard.

Talking to TNM, Sri Vidya, a member of the Compassionate Society for Animals (CSA) and the animal rights activist who shot the video, said that she was the first one to spot the truck that was loading the dead bodies of the animals at Srinagar colony in Siddipet.

“Of the 40 dogs dead, I regularly used to feed three dogs which belonged to our area. On Saturday morning, I couldn’t find any of the animals in the locality and that’s when one of the residents here told me that they saw workers picking dogs from around the area. I spotted the truck that was carrying the dead animals. They told me that were given permission by the civic body to do so. Is this how the authorities enforce birth control among animals? They didn’t even spare the little ones which were just a few months old,” Vidya says.

According to animal activists who were present at the spot, none of the workers deployed for the job belonged to the municipality.

Pradeep, another member of CSA, alleged, “When questioned, the workers told us that they were just daily wage labourers and were asked to pick the dogs which were already poisoned by a team that was sent by the civic body.”

The team found another 30 corpses which were dumped in the dumpyard on Sunday morning.

“We were at the dumpyard on Sunday morning when we caught another truck red-handed, trying to dispose of the bodies of another 38 dead dogs. The bodies of these animals have been sent for post-mortem and we are awaiting the results,” Praveen added.

The video also shows the dogs simply being thrown into the ground one after the other at the dumpyard.

A case has been filed at the Siddipet police station and the activists have also brought the issue to the notice of Siddipet collector. On Sunday, the collector suspended four staff members of the civic body.

According to a press note, municipal staff were involved in the poisoning of the dogs and the district revenue officer has been appointed as the inquiry officer to probe the issue.

According to Section 11(1)C of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, killing any animal (including stray dogs) by using the method of strychnine injections (poisoning) in the heart or in any other unnecessarily cruel manner is a cognizable offence and can attract a simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term, which may extend to two years or with a fine or both.