Warangal Police Register FIR for Cruel Capture and Illegal Relocation of Over a Hundred Dogs, Following Intervention by PETA India and SAFI
Following reports from a local resident and corroborating video evidence that over a hundred community dogs were cruelly captured with wire nooses and forcibly crammed into vans by a group of catchers reportedly hired by the Sarpanch of Dharmasagar Gram Panchayat to illegally relocate them, PETA India and the Stray Animal Foundation of India (SAFI) successfully facilitated the registration of a first information report (FIR) regarding the matter.
Based on a complaint filed by Mr Adulapuram Goutham, Cruelty Prevention Manager at SAFI, PETA India coordinated with the Dharmasagar Police Station, especially Station House Officer of Dharmasagar Police Station, Shri Lingala Dileep, for registration of the FIR under Section 62 read with Section 325 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and Section 11(1)(a) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, against four persons involved in the crime. Police have initiated an investigation to trace the missing dogs and ascertain their whereabouts and condition, including whether they were killed, illegally relocated or died as a result of the incident.
Rule 11(19) of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, permits the capture of community dogs only for the purpose of sterilization and makes it illegal to relocate community animals. It states, “The dogs shall be released [after sterilization] at the same place or locality from where they were captured.” The Hon’ble Supreme Court, in its recent judgment dated 19 May 2026, 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: sterilization. Sterilizing one female dog can prevent 67,000 births over six years, and sterilizing one female cat can prevent 420,000 births over seven years.
Relocation of community animals is cruel, illegal and ineffective. The void left by the dogs picked up is quickly filled by other dogs in the absence of a proper animal birth control program. PETA India urges all local municipal bodies to promptly implement humane animal birth control as required by law.
