In a bid to mark the anniversary of what activists say was a “mass murder of stray dogs” committed in Vashi in 2008 when around 20 strays were found dead, allegedly after being fed poisoned biscuits by some unknown miscreants, Saturday will be celebrated as “Poison Biscuits Day”.
Members of the NGO, Animals Matter to Me, plan to meet at Vashi station on Saturday evening to spread awareness about the increasing number of similar cases.
“We come across a lot of such cases, where stray dogs are poisoned mostly by the residents of the locality. They regard these dogs as a menace and think that poisoning them is a convenient way in getting rid of them,” said founder member of the NGO Ganesh Nayak.
Apart from the Navi Mumbai incident, there have been a number of other cases of poisoning stray dogs. In September last, 16 strays were found poisoned in Ambernath, while four strays were found poisoned in an posh society in Thane. Shockingly, the Thane society residents had even discussed ways to poison stray dogs online.
However, no action was taken against the miscreants by the authorities and even the post-mortem report of the dogs wasn’t made public.
The activists said that instead of poisoning the strays, people could get in touch with the NGO, as they promptly reach out to people, sterilising and vaccinating these canines free of cost.
Recently, the NGO turned up at a housing complex in Dahisar to vaccinate and sterilise these strays free of cost, as a reward to the dogs after they had foiled a robbery attempt in the society.
“We want to spread awareness as cruelty towards animals is not going to solve any problem. We should be compassionate towards them as sterilising and vaccinating these dogs is the only solution,” Mr Nayak said.