After the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) said it had released all stray dogs caught prior to the G20 Summit, dog feeders, animal lovers, and animal welfare groups claimed several dogs were not returned to their correct locations and are organising searches to find them. With no records of the animals’ actual territories, the MCD released all dogs at random locations on September 11, animal welfare groups alleged. Activist Gunjan Uppal found an aged and frail dog, called Granny, at an Animal Birth Control (ABC) facility in Masoodpur. She, who had been monitoring ABC units after seeing their “cruel and awful” ways, said, “While some dogs had tags, many others had none at all”. She said it took her four days to locate Granny. Shashank Malhotra, who has been feeding dogs near the airport terminals since 2019, said he was looking for 9 out of 18 missing dogs. Malhotra also alleged the dogs had not been properly tagged. “Fifteen to sixteen new dogs have shown up at the cargo terminal,” he said, adding that the feeders are coordinating through social media to find missing dogs. Manni Singh, a dog rescuer, said she has also been looking for the missing dogs via social media and has “given out pamphlets to chaiwalas with a promise of a Rs 5,000 reward”. Divya Puri, a member of the Karanpuri Foundation, an animal welfare group, said, “There were 31 dogs missing in total from Pragati Maidan and Airport terminals, and I have also forwarded this list to MCD caretakers.” MCD officials, meanwhile, maintained that all the dogs were dropped at the same place from where they were picked up and proper tagging was done.
