Stray Dogs Face Shocking Cruelty in Delhi's Animal Care Centres

Death, Disappearance, and Despair: Shocking Cruelty Exposed

Dog skulls and bones scattered across the ground — this was the chilling sight at the stray dogs sterilization centre in Sector 27, Rohini. A facility meant to heal and protect had instead become notorious for illegal captures, mishandling, and blatant violations of the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023.

Advocate Leena Sharma Zaveri alleged, “They are killing the dogs. That is why dead bodies of stray dogs are strewn all over the place in and around the centre. I made a police complaint in the case of Sector 27, Rohini, but the police never took any action. They said they did not have jurisdiction, even though it was clearly a case under Section 325 of the BNS. The Animal Welfare Board of India too looked the other way”.

Zaveri said she was first alerted by anxious residents who suspected wrongdoing inside the facility. “People sent me videos where dogs were crying, but they were not given entry into the centre even though their dogs were confined there. When I visited and introduced myself, the veterinary officer simply walked away. Even the police who came refused to enter, passing the responsibility to the MCD. By then, locals had begun finding bones and bodies — it was a very, very gory case,” she recalled.

Locals too had grim tales to share. Adil, a worker in the area, described how he once discovered a decomposed dog dumped near the compound. “When I came, there was a dead dog lying here. We buried it — it smelled very bad. Inside the centre, you can only hear the loud sound of stray dogs screaming. But we don’t have authority to go inside,” he said.

Yet whenever journalists tried to enter, they were stopped. Staff at the centre insisted they had “orders” not to allow anyone in. “Sir, this is what we’ve been told to follow. We can’t let you enter unless we get permission from higher authorities,” one staffer told reporters, while keeping both gates locked.

The silence from officials has only deepened suspicions. Zaveri said the horrors extended even further: “There should be a qualified doctor under CCTV supervision. But I found one video where a driver was conducting an operation. Locals told us these people just throw the bodies, and sometimes bury them in fields. When we dug under a stone, we found skulls and bones. Yet the police said, ‘These are just stray dogs.’”

Shelter Failures and a Countrywide Pattern of Abuse

As investigations widened, the cruelty once detected in Rohini began to look less like an isolated scandal and more like a systemic collapse. Videos and images flooded in from across India: animals bound by paws and mouths, stray dogs dumped dead, and centres that were supposed to protect life instead riddled with neglect. The Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres in Delhi, activists say, are meant to manage the city’s stray dogs humanely — but many are plagued by broken infrastructure, ignored protocols and near-zero accountability.

“I’m talking about the ABC centres,” said feeder and activist Priya Chopra. “They are about 20, about 13 are working now. They’re all in a terrible condition. I have dogs who were picked up by the MCD randomly and I got no information on where the dog has gone. I went to Dr. R. T. Sharma’s centre in Masoodpur — all I saw was blood. There were 10–15 dogs in one cage; my dog came out dead, with open stitches.” Chopra urged strict implementation of ABC rules: “If they had done their job, we and our children would not be suffering.”

The accounts grew more harrowing when rescue workers described mass disappearances of stray dogs from Delhi’s streets after the controversial August 11 order. “Thousand dogs have disappeared in the last one week,” said activist Pranav Grover, who documents shelter conditions across the city. “If this is not mass genocide, then what is it? Those dogs are either getting raped, beaten, relocated, or thrown into drains with their mouths, legs and paws tied. I receive videos daily — I can show them to the media or to the Supreme Court.”

Grover painted a picture of overcrowded shelters where sanitation fails and animals live in filth. “A dog’s pee and faeces were up to its ankles because the drainage system does not work,” he said. “They just throw biscuits in the air — the luckiest ones get them.”

For feeders and rescuers, the pattern is painfully clear: weak oversight, busted procedures and opaque transfers allow abuse to flourish. “ABC — Animal Birth Control — is the only way,” Chopra said, “but the centres have failed to do their job. There has to be a proper ruling, proper implementation, and transparent release back to the territories from where the animals were taken.”

Violence, Assaults and the Unseen Price of Caring for Stray Dogs

The investigation widened its focus to the activists and rescuers who bear the brunt of the crisis. Those who speak up for animals say they are met not only with indifference, but with hostility — sometimes violence. Sahil Sharma, an activist who has long defended Delhi’s community dogs, says he was beaten by police while staging a peaceful protest outside the Rohini ABC centre. “The government is so corrupt — so corrupt that since 2001, we have the ABC rules in Delhi. If sterilization had been done, you wouldn’t be seeing dogs on the road,” he told reporters.

Sharma accused authorities of misusing resources and of suppressing dissent. “Why weren’t the dogs neutered? Where did that money go?” he asked. “Why is the media scared? Why aren’t you coming forward? The government has colluded with the judiciary.” 

Beyond beatings and intimidation, activists described a catalogue of abuses so stark they strain belief. “Men are raping animals. Men are raping dogs,” said Dr. Anuja, an animal-rights campaigner, condemning what she called an appalling pattern of sexual violence against animals. Her remark — blunt and harrowing — has been echoed by rescuers who receive daily footage of brutality.

For those on the front lines, the message is clear: the fate of stray dogs is now inseparable from the safety of the people who protect them. As we spoke to more people, they demanded swift inquiries, accountability for officers and shelter managers, and transparent mechanisms to return animals to their communities — not hide them from public view.

Broken Promises and a System Failing Stray Dogs

When we reached the MCD’s Animal Birth Control (ABC) unit in partnership with the Animal India Trust, the picture became even clearer. Inside, Dr. Sarungbam Yaiphabi Devi, who oversees the programme, admitted that the system itself was designed to fail.

“The space was given by the MCD, but everything else — canals, infrastructure — was built by us,” Dr. Devi explained. “The MCD brings some dogs, and we also pick up from allotted wards. In a day we sterilize 15–20 dogs, while MCD gives us 50 dogs in a month. But to succeed, we must sterilize 70% of dogs in six months. That was never done.” She called it a problem of scale and science ignored, with female dogs reproducing far faster than the city’s fragmented interventions.

The financials only deepen the crisis. “For one dog, we receive 1,000 rupees. But medicines alone cost 600 to 700,” Dr. Devi said. “As a private surgeon, I charge 15,000–20,000 for one operation. Yet here, people expect miracles on a fraction of the cost. Threads alone are hundreds of rupees, and we must use three per dog. This work is very challenging.”

At Masoodpur’s ABC centre, veterinary doctor Ratnesh Yadav echoed his concerns. “This is an MCD collaboration, and we neuter dogs here. But there’s no pathology, no blood tests, no advanced facilities,” he admitted. “If proper examinations were done, surgeries would be safer. But such services don’t exist in any ABC centres in Delhi.”

Even as veterinarians struggle, authorities deflect responsibility. Officials declined to comment, saying only that they will follow Supreme Court directives. Yet on the ground, the evidence is damning: dog skulls dumped like garbage, activists beaten for demanding answers, shelters operating without equipment, and cases of rape and mutilation of stray dogs surfacing unchecked.

This is not just mismanagement. It is a systemic betrayal — a war against the voiceless, carried out in plain sight and shielded by silence.