Al Ain Police launch hunt for dog killers

Al Ain: Alleged brutal killings of a pack of five dogs have stirred up an uproar among the animal lovers in Al Ain who have sought police help to track down the killers.

The incident took place in Al Zakhir district of Al Ain where an expatriate woman spotted the bodies of the dogs on Sunday laying at a street corner in the locality. The bodies were later found missingbefore the municipality workers could remove them.

A complaint has been lodged with the police against the unknown killers and an investigation has been launched. Animal welfare organisations in Abu Dhabi and Dubai have also sprang into action by collaborating on efforts to trace the people behind the killing.

The dogs were found tied up with a rope and their bodies bore marks of abuse and brutality before their throats were reportedly slit, said the eyewitness who spotted the bodies during her morning walk.

The dogs were strangled with a rope and dumped on a pavement of the area. There was also a knife beside the dogs’ bodies. She immediately called the police and municipality for action and informed the Friends of Animals Dubai.

Montserrat Martin, a founder of Friends of Animals Dubai, said such kind of brutality towards animals is alarming and the people involved must be punished by law. “Whoever had done this is psychologically unstable and could be dangerous for society,” she added.

Martin sought help from Raghad Auttabashi, an activist from Abu Dhabi’s Al Rahma Animal Welfare Society, who is experienced in handling such cases. “We have to bring the perpetrators of such horrific acts to justice,” said Martin. She also appreciated the authorities saying they had launched an investigation immediately.

Raghad Auttabashi said: “It’s the height of brutality towards animals and the killers must be rounded up and punished.” She said the pack of dogs was apparently a family with two puppies just six months old.

“They [dogs] were tortured and abused as their bodies clearly bore marks of it,” she said noting that the killer also dragged the dogs’ bodies for dumping them to the corner of a street. The way the animals were ‘murdered’ shows the killer is a mentally unstable person who can cause a greater harm to society as well. “Abusing animals and killing them with torture is an inhuman act,” she added.

Auttabashi, who travelled all the way down to Al Ain, said the municipality had promised to remove the bodies of the dogs but they mysteriously disappeared, along with the knife.

The eyewitness, who requested anonymity, said she took the pictures of dogs and when she came back after informing the police the bodies had disappeared. “This happened within 15 minutes and the municipality workers denied removing the bodies when I checked with them,” she said.

Auttabashi said police has been cooperating and have collected evidences from the place of the incident. The dogs, she said, were roaming in the area for quite some time and were not owned by anybody. They were living in a near-by date palm oasis.