A gruesome recall

Yesterday's tragedy is shockingly similar to an incident in 2007, when a pack of strays had attacked and killed an 8-year-old girl

A gruesome recall

Yesterday's tragedy is shockingly similar to an incident in 2007, when a pack of strays had attacked and killed an 8-year-old girl

The dog menace reached its most vicious yesterday, when strays ripped apart a two-year-old baby at a brick construction site in Bagalur. The child, Prashant, was found dead and mutilated --the strays tore away portions of his arm and leg. Because of the gruesome nature of the pictures, we have decided not to publish them.

Mauled: Sukhdevu00a0and his wife were on the night shift and had left their
son in a shed. That's when the unfotunate incident took place. Pics/Sanjay
MD

The police have arrested the site supervisor in this connection. The child's parents, Sukhdev (45) and Kaikee are residents of Orissa, and had come to the city for work. Bunty, a local contractor offered them jobs at a brick factory in Bagalur, and that's where the couple had been living for the past three months. The site has temporary residential sheds for the labourers to live in.u00a0u00a0

Left unattended
Sometimes, the labourers work at night, and couples put their children in the sheds, while they work at the factory. Yesterday night, Bunty told Sukhdev and his wife to be on the night shift. The couple agreed, and left their son in the shed, as usual.
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In the wee hours of the morning, Kaikee heard their son's crying, following which Bunty went himself and checked, but came back shortly, and told them it was nothing. The couple finished work at 5 am, and returned to their shed. But as soon as they entered, they realised Prashant was missing. The panicked couple checked the surroundings, and found Prashant's mutilated body. After they raised an alarm, other labourers gathered and found some strays sleeping nearby.

To their horror, it dawned upon the crowd that the pack was responsible for the brutality. Labourers recognised one of them as Bunty's pet, and went looking for Bunty. When Bunty saw an approaching crowd he tried to flee, but was caught by the workers, and handed over to the police. Bunty's pet was also taken to the Bagalur police station, where it was kept until the time of going to press.

The growing menace
A minimum four complaints reach the BBMP stray dog helpline center. The department's central division had issued orders to take care of the menace in its eight divisions, but obviously, it still persists.

According to a court directive, BBMP is not allowed to kill the dogs, though it's allowed to sterilise the dogs and release them in the areas they were caught from. A BBMP source said that the city has more than 30,000 strays, and it is difficult to sterilise them all.

BBMP Deputy Director
Dr G Parameshwar said, "We are doing our best to control the dog population, but to no avail. We had ordered zonal officers to take care of the problem, but there have been lapses. I will escalate the matter to the commissioner and mayor seriously this time."

Priya Gundappa, an animal lover said, "All dogs are not aggressive. Such cases happen rarely. Strays are treated very badly in city. Instead of killing them, we have to sterilise them and educate people about dogs."