Mother-son duo booked in Pune for killing dog by hanging it from tree

Mid-day

A woman and son have been charged by Pune rural police with allegedly killing their beloved dog by hanging it from a tree in the Pirangut region of Mulshi tehsil, an official said on Thursday, reported PTI.

The defendants, Prabhavati Jagtap and her son Omkar Jagtap were named in a complaint made by Padmini Stump, an animal rights activist who runs the Mission Possible Foundation, which houses canines. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray had already highlighted the incident on social media, prompting Stump to file a police report, stated PTI report.

According to senior inspector Santosh Girigosavi of the Paud Road police station, Prabhavati allegedly struck their pet Labrador with a stick on October 22 before her son Omkar hanged the dog from a tree. The mother and son have been charged under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

"On October 22, Prabhavati allegedly assaulted their pet Labrador with a stick. Later, her son Omkar hanged the canine from a tree. We have booked them under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act," Paud Road police station senior inspector Santosh Girigosavi said.

Before the event, the family had contacted a Pimpri-based dog lover and requested that she take the dog. They later texted her a horrific image of the dog hanging from a tree, Stump told PTI.

"But later, they sent a picture of the dog hanging from a tree. We rushed there and got an offence registered against them," Stump said.

She also mentioned that the family had taken the dog to the vet for several tests, including rabies. "Presuming that the pet had rabies, they might have killed it," she said.

Mumbai woman splashes acid on dog

In a similar incident of animal cruelty, a woman from Mumbai seriously injured a dog living in her apartment complex by throwing acid at it. The caretaker of the dog, another resident of the building, had told mid-day that the woman looked after cats and believed that the dog, named Brownie, was harassing them and barking at them.

The incident happened at Malwani Swapnapurti Society in Malad in August of this year, following which the Malwani police registered an FIR against the woman.

The incident was recorded on CCTV cameras in the society where the accused woman, Sabista Suhail Ansari, 35, also resides.