Election promises fuel mass killing of stray dogs in Telangana

During the recent panchayat polls, many candidates had promised to eradicate threats from dogs and monkeys. While monkeys are captured and relocated to nearby forests, professionals have been hired to poison stray dogs

Hyderabad: Reports of mass stray dog killings are emerging from villages across Telangana, with suspicions that hired professionals are using cyanide or strychnine — crystalline rodenticides — to swiftly eliminate the animals.

On-ground interactions with animal welfare activists and local body representatives by DH reveal that inadequate animal birth control (ABC) programmes, now largely confined to municipalities, are fueling rapid dog population growth in rural areas. Abundant food sources allow dogs in rural areas to thrive, accelerating their numbers and intensifying the menace.

During the recent panchayat polls, many candidates had promised to eradicate threats from dogs and monkeys. While monkeys are captured and relocated to nearby forests, newly elected sarpanches have hired professionals who poison stray dogs with syringes while they are asleep, fulfilling their election promises. The canines die within minutes, and their carcasses are buried on village outskirts.

These killers charge around Rs 500 per dog, covering both poisoning and disposal. In the past 15 days, Telangana has recorded at least three incidents involving the deaths of around 500 stray dogs across several villages.

"In almost all cases, local sarpanches and village secretaries ordered the killings to honor election promises from the recent panchayat polls. In many villages, monkeys and stray dogs became major election talking points due to their menace. Now, with new sarpanches in charge, they are hiring professionals. In rural areas, easy food availability and poor garbage disposal keep dogs healthy and allow their populations to multiply rapidly. ABC measures are largely limited to cities, towns, and municipalities, not villages — where the real problem persists. If one dog undergoes ABC, that area remains safe for nearly a decade. Unfortunately, villages are the most neglected,” Adulapuram Goutham, animal cruelty prevention manager at Stray Animal Foundation of India (SAFI), told DH.

From cities to rural areas

Catching dogs from cities and municipalities and releasing them in rural areas is worsening the issue.

“Municipal workers dump dogs caught in cities into our neighborhoods, where their numbers explode quickly, putting immense pressure on us. To fulfill our election promise, we hired people from Andhra Pradesh who claimed they would anesthetise the strays and relocate them. We didn't realise the injections were poison,” a sarpanch from a village in Ranga Reddy district, near Hyderabad's outskirts, told DH.

Animal welfare activists alarmed

This wave of killings has alarmed animal welfare activists, who have filed FIRs against sarpanches, panchayat secretaries, and the hired hands. They accuse local leaders of orchestrating poisonings that violate the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

Incidents have been reported in Yacharam village (Ranga Reddy district), Palwancha Mandal (Kama Reddy district), and villages, including Bhavanipet, Faridpet, Wadi, Bandarameshwarapally, Shayampet, and Arepally (Hanamkonda district). Multiple FIRs have been registered under Section 11(1)(a)(l) of the PCA Act.

“In Yacharam, we have exhumed around 37 highly decomposed carcasses so far. Samples are being sent to the forensic science laboratory (FSL) for examination. We will determine the exact cause of death only after the FSL reports come,” Yacharam SI K Madhu told DH.

“Extensive scientific research and global studies show that mass culling and relocation fail to manage stray dog populations. These methods create vacuums filled by immigration and breeding, often worsening conflicts. The law is clear — catch, vaccinate, sterilise, release. This is the only scientific, humane, and legal approach, yet it's not properly implemented. Most ABC facilities in Telangana lack sterilisation or recovery standards, with no monitoring or audits to track tax money. Why are NGOs and subject experts being sidelined? You cannot solve a biological problem with a bureaucratic mindset,” Tejovanth Anupoju of the Coalition of Animal Welfare Organisations in Telangana told DH.

He  added that a deeper probe by drug authorities and the police in coordination was urgently needed to expose this shadowy poisoning racket, fueled by easily accessible toxins. He sought to know what if such  poison is used on humans?