Mumbai: Mystery gang kidnapping and dumping stray dogs

A group of men in a white van have been picking up stray dogs from Kandivli and Mira Road and abandoning them at the Uttan dumping ground alleged animal lovers in the cityrsquos suburbs The security guards of the residential buildings said they have spotted a white van catching the strays at night said the locals who regularly feed the dogsThe animal lovers in the two western suburbs alleged that police have turned a deaf ear to their multiple complaintsThe white van is allegedly picking up stray dogs and abandoning them at Uttan dumping groundBhavna Singh an animal lover from Mira Road said ldquoOn April 26 a stray dog whom I fed regularly went missing from my area I contacted other animal rights activists in my area and learnt that many stray dogs have been missing since the past few days During our search and enquiries a security guard of a residential building told us that he saw threefour people in a white van drive away with the stray dogs at Poonam Sagar Complex We checked the CCTV footage of the cameras in the area and spotted the van but could not get the registration number as it was darkrdquoldquoWe checked with a MiraBhayandar Municipal Corporation team that picks up stray dogs but they denied having done that We contacted shelter homes but in vain Then some people told us that a lot of dogs have been loitering at the Uttan dumping groundrdquo Singh 27 who works with a digital marketing firm addedArnold Lobo from Mira RoadldquoWe visited the site and after searching around we found the dogs Thankfully they were in good healthrdquo She said adding that their ldquokidnappersrdquo have not been identified yetldquoWe went to the Naya Nagar police station in Mira Road and submitted a letter but they refused to register a complaint I have been feeding strays in my area for the past nine years and there are 400plus dogs and cats hererdquo Singh saidRahul Thakur from KandivliAnother local Parth Raparthi 23 said he feeds around 200 dogs in his area and noticed some of them missing in April He also found his missing strays at the Uttan dump yardSimilar incidents were reported in Kandivli Rahul Thakur who works at an event management firm said ldquoI lost my dog in April after which Singh who told me about the missing dogs in Mira Roadrdquo The missing stray dogs from Kandivli were also recovered from UttanArnold Lobo from Mira Road said ldquoThe accused that are picking up the dogs from the area should be behind bars I am grateful that my dogs are saferdquoNeeta Shetty who runs Hope For Indies said ldquoWe saw a message on social media about thousands of dogs at Uttan dumping yard and contacted people who had recently lost their dogs We learnt that animal lover Febah Martin went to this dumping ground and found around 200 dogs but all were in good healthrdquoMartin said ldquoIt is shocking My team is also conducting an enquiry into this white vanrdquo34No of people allegedly spotted in a van picking up dogsAprilMonth dogs started disappearing from localities