FIR Registered for Killing 30 Community Dogs Following PETA India, SAFI and Smt Maneka Gandhi’s Intervention in Telangana
After learning that the Dharampuri Municipality allegedly hired workers to inject stray dogs with a lethal substance, resulting in their painful deaths, PETA India and Stray Animal Foundation India (SAFI), with the intervention of former Union Cabinet Minister Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, successfully facilitated the registration of a first information report (FIR) at Dharampuri Police Station.
The incidents were recorded on timestamped video footage, which clearly shows the accused individuals injecting dogs with a lethal substance. Shortly after the injection, the dogs can be seen dying. In the same videos, the accused admits to being hired to carry out these barbaric and illegal acts. Furthermore, the footage shows the accused loading the carcasses into a vehicle for disposal.
PETA India closely worked with the Director General of Police (DGP) of Telangana, Sri B. Shivadhar Reddy, IPS; Collector and District Magistrate, Jagtial, Sri B. Satya Prasad, IAS; Circle Inspector of Dharampuri Police Station, Sri Ramnarsimha Reddy; Station House Officer (SHO) of Dharampuri Police Station, Sri Mahesh, to help get the FIR registered. The FIR has been registered under Section 325 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, based on a complaint filed by Mr Adulapuram Goutam, Cruelty Prevention Manager at SAFI Foundation and another complaint has been submitted to Dharampuri Police Station requesting the addition of Section 11(1)(l) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, which makes it a cognisable offence to mutilate or kill any animal (including stray dogs) by using strychnine injections in the heart or by any other unnecessarily cruel method.
Rule 11(19) of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, permits the capture of community dogs only for the purpose of sterilisation and makes it illegal to relocate or kill community animals. It states, “The dogs shall be released [after sterilisation] at the same place or locality from where they were captured.” The Hon’ble Supreme Court, in its order dated 22 August 2025, upheld the ABC Rules by reiterating that dogs shall be released back to their territories following the necessary procedures mandated in the ABC Rules, 2023.
Community dogs are often subjected to cruelty or struck by cars and commonly suffer from starvation, disease, or injury. Every year, many end up in animal shelters, where they languish in cages or kennels for lack of enough good homes. The solution is simple: sterilisation. Sterilising one female dog can prevent 67,000 births over six years, and sterilising one female cat can prevent 420,000 births over seven years.
PETA India recommends that perpetrators of animal abuse undergo psychiatric evaluation and receive counselling, as abusing animals indicates a deep psychological disturbance. Research shows that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals are often repeat offenders who move on to hurting other animals, including humans. A study published in Forensic Research & Criminology International Journal stated, “Those who engage in cruelty to animals were [three] times more likely to commit other crimes, including murder, rape, robbery, assault, harassment, threats, and drug/substance abuse.”
PETA India has long campaigned to strengthen the PCA Act, 1960, which contains outdated, inadequate penalties, such as a maximum fine of only Rs 50 for convicted first-time offenders (although the BNS, 2023, prescribes stronger punishments). In a proposal sent to the central government regarding an amendment to the PCA Act, PETA India has recommended significantly increasing penalties for cruelty to animals.
