Authorities In Hyderabad Are Reportedly Poisoning Stray Dogs Ahead Of Ivanka Trump Visit

NEW DELHI: Reports from Hyderabad indicate that authorities -- in an attempt to clean up the city before Ivanka Trump’s upcoming visit -- have picked up street dogs and perhaps even poisoned them.

A report in the Deccan Chronicle states: “ Dog lovers say street dogs have gone missing from Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills and their surroundings. Residents of these areas allege that street dogs have been caught and taken away by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the past 24 hours. They allege that the dogs are being poisoned to sanitise the city for Ivanka Trump’s visit!”

Residents say that while some dogs have disappeared, others have appeared sick and weak and some have even been found dead. They add that the veterinary hospital confirmed that the dogs had been poisoned when they were brought in for examination.

“This area had a lot of street dogs, who are all friendly and part of the community. The residents look after them, feed them and meet their vaccination and health needs. It’s bizarre how overnight, a majority of the dogs here just disappeared. A few have mysteriously been found dead,” said a resident of Banjara Hills on the condition of anonymity. “It’s obvious that the dogs have either been picked up or poisoned. The symptoms are all there… fainting, frothing at the mouth, loss of appetite, sudden weakness. We have rushed some of them to the veterinarian and they have confirmed poisoning.”

The allegation is backed up by animal activists in the city, who allege that street dogs are being picked up and poisoned by Hyderabad’s municipal corporation as part of a clean-up drive organised by the Telangana government to prepare the city for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit this month. Ivanka Trump will be speaking at this summit, which is an annual meeting of investors and entrepreneurs. This year, the summit is focused on the theme of “empowering women.”

The municipal authorities, however, deny the charge. They say that the rounding up of dogs is part of routine Animal Birth Control drives, and that dogs when picked up are sterilised and returned to the spot, in accordance with the law. They add that the drive is ongoing, and has nothing to do with the summit or Trump’s visit.

Media reports have pointed out that one or two instances of poisoning is little in the way of substantiating the charge that authorities are poisoning street dogs, as the dog in question could have eaten something poisonous. Residents, however, maintain that the disappearance of the dogs, along with a few cases of poisoning, are suspicious and given the timing of Trump’s visit, perhaps not coincidental.

Hyderabad’s authorities have received flak in recent weeks in connection with their attempts to prepare the city for the summit and Trump’s visit. Earlier this month it was reported that police had instituted a “ban” on begging, and begun moving homeless people to rehabilitation facilities in prisons. About 6000 people have been moved to these facilities, a majority of whom are being lodged in the city’s Chanchalguda jail.

Announcing the move to ban begging, Hyderabad police put out a notice saying that “such acts are causing annoyance and awkwardness by exposing in an indecent manner to divert the attention of the vehicular traffic as well as pedestrians and public, in general, to induce them to give alms. These acts are dangerous to the safety of the vehicular traffic and public in general.”

In preparation for the summit, roads are being repaired and other arrangements are underway in Hyderabad. The decision to ban begging and move homeless people to rehabilitation facilities in jails, however, grabbed international headlines.

“Police in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad are doing a last-minute sweep to get beggars off the streets ahead of Ivanka Trump's visit later this month. The unprecedented order was given by the city's police commissioner earlier this week and will last for two months, according to V.K. Singh, the director general of prisons in Hyderabad,” CNN reports.

“Ahead of Ivanka Trump’s visit to Hyderabad later this month for an entrepreneurship summit, the Indian city is trying to clean up its image by rounding up about 6,000 beggars and sending them to either shelters or rehab.Police in Hyderabad made the announcement earlier this week, when they also outlawed begging until early January and threatened to fine or jail anyone who defies the order. Hyderabad Police Commissioner M. Mahendar Reddy said that the begging was becoming a nuisance and causing a danger to both drivers and pedestrians,” Fox News notes.

“As Ivanka Trump’s visit to India nears, the south Indian city of Hyderabad is getting ready to dazzle its foreign guests — by locking its homeless and destitute people out of sight in prison rehabilitation centers,” says a report in the Washington Post.

A report in the Indian Express quoted an unnamed officer saying that even though homeless people were objecting to the move, it was “for their own good.” “Some beggars argued that we were taking their freedom to live anywhere they want, but we told them it was for their own good because they are going to the rehab centre where they will be taken care of,” the officer said.