Delhi civic body refutes Congress's claim of 'cruel' removal of dogs for G20

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Saturday responded to a video uploaded by the Congress party on X (formerly Twitter) accusing the central government of inflicting "shocking cruelty" on the street dogs in Delhi in preparation for the G20 Summit.

The civic body refuted the Congress's claim and said, "It is high time to say no to misinformation."

(Video credits: @INCIndia on X)

It added that the MCD ensures that all the dogs picked up from the streets on an "urgent basis" are given proper care and medical facilities. "No cruelty or harm was caused," it added.

The Congress alleged that the MCD launched a "massive illegal drive" to pick up dogs from the streets of Delhi in the "most cruel and arbitrary manner". It further said the captured dogs were taken to animal sterilisation units "without maintaining proper records" of how many of them were picked and from where.

The video showed instances of dogs being captured with metal wire and dragged by their necks and thrown into cages.

The MCD, in its response to the video, said it lacks "credibility" and said the vehicles seen in it do not belong to the civic body. It also attached a picture of a dog being captured using a net to counter the charge that the animals were picked up using metal wires.

Animal rights activist Sanjay Mohapatra said the MCD's response to the video was "disheartening". "It's disheartening to see the MCD selectively pointing out videos from other states and not responding to videos where it's visible that their employees are involved in dragging the dogs using metal wire noose, which is banned under the animal welfare board of India (AWBI) guidelines," he added.

Mohapatra added that many dogs were injured in the removal and they have been crammed into makeshift shelters.