Early on Wednesday morning, four dogs in the English and Foreign Language University were poisoned, although three of the dogs could be saved, but unfortunately one died.
The poisoned dog was found lying dead at Basheer Men’s hostel (close to the badminton court) on campus. A complaint in this regard has been registered with the Osmania University police and investigation is on.
“On Wednesday at around 4 am, I received a call from a hostel student stating that ‘Onezee’ (name of the dog) was found dead at the badminton court near the men’s hostel. Meanwhile, we found three other community dogs in critical condition on cam-pus; they were continuously vom-iting and were not in a state to move,” said Tulsi Dharmarajan, a resident of Eflu campus.
A veterinary doctor was called who confirmed that the dogs had been poisoned. Later on, the autopsy reports of “Onezee” confirmed the same. In spite of everything, it is not known who poisoned the dogs. A group of Eflu students had adopted about 10 stray dogs three-four years ago and named them Eflu community dogs.
“These dogs live on campus and are taken care of by the group including their food and medicines; all of them are inoculated and cause no harm to any one on campus. A similar inhuman act took place in 2008 when a female dog and her five pups were poisoned; two years ago a community dog was thrown out of a hostel window. There are many students and the administration as well who are unhappy with the idea of sharing their space with these dogs. “In fact the dogs protect student by not allowing other street dogs enter the campus,” said a student.
Following the incident, the People for Animals group lodged a complaint at the OU police station. “Killing of animals by poisoning or injecting is illegal under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960,” said Joshi, Inspector, and People for Animals group.