Hundreds of street dogs were rounded up from the streets of Delhi as the world’s leaders prepare to meet for the G20 summit in the capital of India, sparking concerns and criticisms from animal rights activists. The summit starts on Saturday and lasts for two days.
Animal rights organizations accused the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) of capturing stray dogs in an inhumane manner and taking them to overcrowded and unhygienic shelters.
“They (authorities) have decided that both for security reasons and for perhaps maybe prestige of the country, they do not want the street dogs to be around for some time,” Geeta Seshamani, co-founder of the animal shelter Friendicoes, told news agency Reuters.
Indian animal welfare organization People for Animals (PFA) released disturbing footage showing untrained workers using banned metal wires and nooses to forcibly capture the dogs, causing panic and distress among the animals.
“How does a short 2-day event justify the enormous cruelty and expense of such an action?” PFA said. “Instead of working steadily over the years to sterilize and vaccinate dogs whereby the population would have been negligible, this sham overdrive to ‘hide’ away our dogs is both unnecessary and illegal.”
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