Dubai: If you’re a cat-lover, this story is not for you. A man accused his neighbour of killing both his pet kittens and eating one of them, in the city of Kottayam, in the south Indian state of Kerala.
What happened?
Sanju Stephen, a resident of S. H. Mount, a village in Kottayam, lodged a complaint against his 32-year old neighbour at the Gandhi Nagar police station, accusing him of shooting his pet kittens with a gun.
According to a report by Indian newspaper Times of India, Stephen claimed that last week one of his kittens had an injury mark on her stomach and two days later, the animal succumbed to injuries. She was buried on the owner’s premises.
Stephen stated that he had heard gunshots on the day his pet got injured. In addition to filing a police complaint, he filed a complaint with animal activist and politician Maneka Gandhi, for help.
Missing kitten
According to a report by Indian English-language news channel Mirror Now, the two kittens were named Kunjayi and Susanna. After Kunjayi’s death, the second kitten suddenly went missing.
In the report, Stephen alleged that his neighbour not only shot the animal, but also made a meal out of her. He has demanded justice for this incident and submitted a copy of his complaint to the husbandry department and Friends of Animals, a group of animal lovers.
The Gandhi Nagar police are investigating the bizarre incident.
Other stories
This is not the first time an incident like this has taken place.
According to the Mirror Now report, in January 2019, a man lodged a complaint at the Rabodi police station in Thane, Mumbai, after his cat went missing for seven months.
He alleged that his daughter found the cat, dead, within the society area, and that someone had hit the animal with their car. The police filed a complaint against an unidentified person.
In February 2018, police officials rescued more than a dozen cats from Hyderabad’s Balaji Nagar, after many people had complained that their pet cats had gone missing. The cats were being taken by “gypsies” and were going to be used in biryani.
The article quoted Shiranee Pereira, the co-founder of the organisation, People for Animals (PFA), who said: "Most of these pets are trapped by narikuravas (gypsies) for their meat that is sold to roadside eateries. This has been happening for at least two decades now."
Who is Maneka Gandhi?
Maneka Gandhi is a member of the Indian parliament’s lower house, the Lok Sabha. She is an animal right’s leader and an environmentalist in India.
She started the organisation People for Animals (PFA) in 1992, which is the largest organisation for animal rights and welfare in the country. She filed legislations that replaced the municipal killing of homeless dogs with a sterilisation programme, and a ban on travelling zoos.
