CHENNAI: Police have booked a private pet care centre for brutally abusing a dog that resulted in its death.
The owners of the six-year-old dog, Charlie, left it at 'Pet Paws', a dog boarding centre in Arumbakkam, as they had to travel to Germany for personal reasons.
The centre demanded 12,000 for taking care of the Golden Retriever in their absence. Though the owner of the centre promised that they could see Charlie whenever they wished through video call, they never allowed it.
After insisting repeatedly, the caretaker offered them a glimpse of Charlie once. The owners were shocked to find injuries on the dog's leg. When asked, the workers of the centre told them they were allergy marks. On March 3, the pet owners received a call from the centre claiming that Charlie was struggling to breath and was being rushed to a hospital. The same afternoon, they informed the owners that the dog had died due to a “heart attack”.
Pet Paws shared a CCTV video clip showing how Charlie was healthy a day before its death. The owner of the dog flew down to Chennai. After burying her pet at Kannamapettai, the woman owner came to the centre's branches in Arumbakkam and Velachery and demanded more CCTV clips. The centre denied. This is when she found out that one of the centre's employees, Suraj, a native of Nepal, had punched the dog brutally near its heart. As the dog vomitted, Suraj dragged it to a nearby room.
No CCTV cameras were fitted in the other room. Two hours later, the workers were found carrying Charlie outside the main hall. Based on this footage, a complaint was filed with the Velachery police on Thursday. The centre's owner Ram, caretaker Martin and Suraj were booked under IPC Section 429 and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
