even as the animal rights activists continue to fight for the wellbeing of animals the city has been witnessing instances of dogs especially stray dogs being poisoned to death often as the victims of horrendous cruelty 16 dogs including five pet dogs died after consuming poison laced meat remains at lavanya garden in kovaipudhur on fridaythe pet dogs of dhaval momaya a resident of lavanya garden did not come running when he reached his house around 1130pm on friday instead his neighbor came with his dog struggling for life in his hands it was only then the dogs in the area started to fall one after another including dhavals dogs a few packets of meat remains were found in different localities of the areawe took the dogs to the government veterinary polyclinic at town hall which is supposed to work round the clock only to return as the clinic was closed he said timely treatment would have saved at least some dogs he added while nine dogs had died on saturday seven more dogs from the nearby locality had died on sunday four more dogs are undergoing treatment at the humane animal society has the residents had identified packets of meat remains at five different spots across the localityall the deceased dogs were sterilized and vaccinated he said explaining that both the community dogs and the pet dogs were treated on par with each other and the dogs were never considered as menace in their communityresidents and animal lovers attribute such instances to the increase in dog population on the streets with every passing month its been almost a year since the sterilization of dogs were carried out in the locality said p mohan prasanth social worker pinpointing that just his street in kovaipudhur alone has about 20 dogs and some of them are suffering from rabbis thus spreading the disease to human beings how can a person walk alone on the road with such an increase in dog population he asked despite zero support from the corporation we have been trying to sterilize as many dogs as possible said mini vasudevan from humane animal society one of the nongovernmental organizations who have signed agreement with the corporation to carry out the sterilization programmeapart from sterilizing the animals awareness should be created among people on how to treat and behave with animals she added meanwhile the residents allege that officers at kunniyamuthur police station refused to file first information report fir even as several residents registered a complaint but the police said that they had informed the animal husbandry department and were proceeding as per their directionsthe animal husbandry department had requested the police to send the internal organs of the dogs to forensic department to know the exact cause of deathon polyclinic not functioning round the clock an official from the animal husbandry department said that a duty doctor and an assistant were on the night duty the residents might have visited the clinic when the doctor was on