Punjab Animal welfare society announces Rs 1-lakh reward for information on dogfight organisers

The three mobile phone numbers, printed on the invites, are switched off. Sub-inspector Dilbagh Singh, Station House Officer of Nihal Singh Wala police station said that there has been no headway in the case yet.

The police till now have failed to make any progress in the case.

Days after the Nihal Singh Wala police of Moga district registered an FIR against unidentified persons for circulating invites of a dogfight championship that was scheduled for last Friday, an animal welfare organisation, Humane Society International (HSI), Monday announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for any information about the organisers.

Jayasimha, managing director, HSI India, said animal fights are brutal. “The dogs are reared in isolation, constantly provoked to make them aggressive and forced to tear each other, often ending in fatal injuries. Not only is it illegal to incite animal fights, but also to organise them. Hence, anyone with any information that will lead us to identify the organisers of this dogfight is requested to call us at +91 8899117773,” he said.

The police till now have failed to make any progress in the case. The three mobile phone numbers, printed on the invites, are switched off. Sub-inspector Dilbagh Singh, Station House Officer of Nihal Singh Wala police station said that there has been no headway in the case yet. “We had sent the mobile phone numbers to telecom companies to get information about their owners, but we are yet to receive information. Also, we got busy in some other cases. We are yet to identify the organisers,” he said.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of state veterinary department under Section 11(1) of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act after invites went viral on social media. Dogfights are also banned as per a Supreme Court order of 2014. The Supreme Court of India, in its orders in 2014 banning cockfights and dogfights in India, had said that any staged fights between animals, including between humans and animals, must end.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram