In a disturbing case of animal cruelty, about 300 stray dogs were poisoned and killed between 6th and 8th January in Shayampet and Arepalli villages in Hanamkonda district of Telangana.
After animal welfare activists filed complaints, Shayampet police registered an FIR against nine people, including local leaders like village sarpanches, their husbands, and panchayat secretaries, for their role in these illegal killings.
#Telangana | Police booked cases against nine people, including the sarpanches for allegedly killing around 300 #straydogs using lethal injections. The incident came to light when police and veterinary doctors visited the villages to conduct a postmortem of the buried carcasses.… pic.twitter.com/0vMB6xwbHb
— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) January 12, 2026
The incident came out on Sunday, 11th January, when animal activists Farzana Begum and Adulapuram Goutham from the Stray Animal Foundation of India went to the villages to check reports of tons of dead dogs. The FIR says two hired guys gave the dogs poisonous injections to kill them.
Who got booked
Police have named nine people in total, including the sarpanches from Shayampet and Arepalli gram panchayat limits, their husbands, Shayampet’s deputy sarpanch, panchayat secretaries from both villages, and the two men who did the injections. Early evidence shows local authorities knew and were involved.
They’ve been charged under Section 325 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 11(1) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Cops found phone recordings and witness statements where some accused admitted to it in chats with activists before the police got involved.
The case grabbed national attention when former Union minister Maneka Gandhi stepped in, talking to top police officers. She pushed for the FIR to be filed properly and asked for post-mortems on the dog bodies to get forensic proof.
Call for better solutions
Adulapuram Goutham said killing stray animals like this is not just against the law but also doesn’t work to control their numbers. He pointed out that the real fix is following the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, properly. He blamed local bodies for dropping the ball and called on the Telangana government to start big sterilisation and Anti-Rabies Vaccination drives right away to stop this from happening again.
