dog bite incident
animal welfare volunteers
community dogs
stray dogs
dog-human conflicts
A recentinvolving a four-year-old child in CQAL Layout, Sahakarnagar, has triggered a dispute between, local residents and civic authorities over the alleged wrongful capture of twothat caretakers insist were not involved in the attack. The incident occurred on June 14 when a four-year-old child, whose parents work as watchmen at a nearby construction site and reside in a temporary hut, was allegedly attacked by a pack ofwhile playing outside during a drizzle.According to animal welfare activist and SPCA member Sujaya Jagadish, preliminary accounts suggest that the dogs involved in the attack were not regular residents of the street. “The child had stepped outside when a pack of around six dogs was running down the road. One dog walked past the child, who got frightened and started running.The dog then chased the child, after which the entire pack attacked. The dogs involved were completely new to the area and were not part of the locality,” Jagadish said.Following the incident, officials reportedly captured two dogs known locally as “Scooby” and “Shadow” and shifted them to the Asara Animal Shelter in Sumanahalli.However, caretakers and animal welfare volunteers allege that the dogs were picked up merely to appease angry residents rather than based on evidence linking them to the attack. “They told us the dogs would be kept for ten days to calm down the public. This is a fraudulent pickup because the actual dogs involved in the attack are still roaming free and no serious efforts have been made to trace them,” Jagadish alleged.In a video shared, the girl’s parents stated that the two captured dogs were not the ones who attacked her, adding that she often played with them.Animal caregivers in the area maintain that the two dogs are long-term community dogs that have lived in the lane for several years and have never displayed aggressive behaviour.Maria Sindhu, who has been feeding and caring for the dogs, said Scooby has been in the locality for nearly seven years, while Shadow is known for its calm temperament.“After Covid, Scooby has been living in our lane. Shadow is very quiet and mostly eats, sleeps and keeps to itself. They may bark when strangers enter the area, but they have never attacked anyone. Last August, officials took Scooby to the Asara centre for vaccination and returned him,” she said.Sindhu further alleged that some residents had been demanding the removal of all dogs from the street and blamed Scooby and Shadow despite repeated objections from caretakers. “When officials came to capture them, I kept telling them these were not the dogs involved. We even shared evidence showing they had picked up the wrong dogs, but nobody listened. Since June 16, the dogs have been at the shelter under isolation. The six dogs that attacked the child are still missing,” she said.The incident has reignited discussions around Bengaluru’s Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme and the handling of. Animal welfare advocates argue that identifying the correct dogs, carrying out sterilisation and vaccination, and ensuring responsible community care are critical to preventing future incidents.Volunteers have also raised concerns about the prolonged confinement of dogs in facilities meant primarily for sterilisation and vaccination procedures, calling for greater transparency in the city’s response to dog bite cases. Animal activists say they are awaiting the release of Scooby and Shadow, while expressing concerns about the dogs’ safety upon their return to the neighbourhood. A member from Citizens for Animal Birth Control said, “ABC, ARV has to be done on a rampage. Efforts and infrastructure should improve with immediate effect.”