Manoj Oswal
Mood:  a-ok

Animal Welfare Officer (Hon)

Animal Welfare Board of India

(Ministry of Environment and Forests)

H.O

PFA

14 Ashoka Road

New Dehli 1100.1

 

Regional Unit

PFA Pune Unit

149 Bhawani Peth,

Pune 411 042.

myself@manojoswal.com

Tel : 02066017797

Mob: +919890044455

 

URGENT – HAND DELIVERED

 

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Case No :  PNQ/53/09-10  / Ref : AW/168/09-10

 

 

Sub : Stray dogs being picked up from Boat Club Rd. and thrown away/ possibly killed. – rejoinder and update.

 

Dear Dr Thakur / Dr Pardeshi,

 

In pursuance of the issues mentioned in my letter dated 26 November I followed up my case with some undercover investigation on my own and I am shocked to see the behavior of your staff and their readiness to violate law at every level.

 

Here are my findings

1. The Blue Cross Dog Pound was closed for maintenance on 26 November – 1 December however the dog vans were still going all across the town catching the dogs. There is no explanation to what happened with those dogs.
2. On Nov 30 till Dec 02 we followed the van right from their start at Gadikhana till their return back. The dog catchers were merrily catching dogs from one area and throwing them apart in another area on most of the days. On one day (Tuesday Dec1) they simply ran the vehicle across the town without even getting down from it, this was a sheer wastage of fuel and time.
3. The dog vans do not follow any system of making notes of which dog has been caught from which area.
4. The dogs are crudely noosed with a rope and mercilessly pulled into the vehicle. Many a times the dog bleeds while being pulled.
5. Lactating mothers and small puppies are not allowed to be picked up as they are not suitable for sterilization, however we found that not just the mothers were picked up, the puppies were stuffed in polythene bags to suffocate and die.
6. On being asked to catch a rabid dog, Mr. Raut readily offered to poison the dog. ( I have some of the phone conversations on record)
7.   I finally cornered them in Mira Society red handed violating the laws and with puppies stuffed in plastic bag that would have died in another 20 minutes had we not intervened.
8. I followed the vehicle to Naidu Hospital where they admitted the facts above and cited ‘public pressure’ to their deeds.

 

I had summoned the police to book the violators but I refrained from doing so on their request.

 

This completely negates your claim you made on Nov 27 when I visited your office enquiring about dogs picked up from Chandan Nagar.Dog van doesn’t have anyone with mobile phone (both does vans have seniors with mobile phone). This also negates your contention that your dog catchers are not killing or abandoning dogs.

 

I also gather the following facts from the meeting held at the dog pound at Naidu Hospital.

a.       The Blue Cross Society of Pune had offered free training to the dog catchers on using butterfly nets way back in Feb 09, but the training was not availed.

b.      The Blue Cross has procured 26 butterfly net and offered to let PMC use them.  This would have not just helped reduce dog suffering but also improved safety of dog catchers and enabled them to strictly follow norms of recording area of dog catching.

 

The PMC has not reciprocated to the gesture and continues to violate the law in impunity.

 

I am of an opinion that a lot of work needs to be done to ensure that the dog catching work is in compliance to the

Regards,

 

 

 

Manoj Oswal

Animal Welfare Officer (Hon)

 

To,

Chief Health Officer

Pune Municipal Corporation.

Pune.