Four-year-old boy mauled to death by street dogs in Hyderabad

“Of these 33 dogs, 25 were already sterilised. In Greater Hyderabad, we have sterilised over 71 per cent of dogs as of date and it is a continuous process. There is a dog-catching unit in each of the 31 circles and about 200-odd dogs are caught every day. They are sterilised at any of the five animal care centres and released at the same place after post-operative care. Such sterilised dogs are docile,” he told indianexpress.com.

In the CCTV visuals that went viral on Tuesday, the boy can be seen walking alone when three dogs charge towards him. As the boy tries to run, the dogs bite him and drag him around. Several times the boy tried to run away but was soon pushed to the ground by one of the dogs. The canines pulled him to the corner, overpowered him and savaged him, officials said.

Hearing the screams, his older sister alerted the father who tried to rescue the boy. Though he was rushed to a hospital, the doctors declared him dead.

Gangadhar said that his son was bleeding profusely and breathed his last on the way to the hospital.

Condemning the incident, Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao expressed condolences to the family of the boy. “Despite setting up animal care centres to take care of stray dogs in a humane way such incidents happen and are very unfortunate. We will do everything we can to ensure that such incidents do not recur,” he said.