An Unani doctor was arrested in Tamil Nadu after he shot at a stray pup using an air gun. Neighbours alleged that he often poisons birds and kills stray dogs by mixing acid in water. He was booked under the Animal Cruelty Act and the Arms Act and arrested after a local filed a complaint against him.

Prabhu Palaniappan, a resident of Palakkarai in Trichy, was feeding a stray pup in the neighborhood on the night of April 22. Even as he was feeding biscuits to the pup, Syed Hasan Sahib, a resident of Alam Street in Khaja pettai shot the puppy with an air gun all of a sudden. He was reportedly watching the scene from his house and brought his gun out to shoot the puppy out of the blue. Shocked, Palaniappan filed a complaint with the police the next day and Syed was arrested.

Syed Hasan Sahib is an Unani doctor and runs a clinic in the same neighborhood. He was booked under sections 429 IPC 11 (1) (a) of Animal Cruelty Act and 25 (1) (b) of the Arms Act. Media reports say that Syed has the habit of shooting at birds and stray dogs claiming that they make too much noise. Neighbours told Palaniappan that he would poison dogs by mixing acid in water and that despite many warnings Syed continued his inhumane act.

Syed told police that he killed stray dogs because they terrorised children. The stray dog menace is indeed an important issue that needs to be addressed quickly. But this incident raises other questions like why he would kill birds and choose a gruesome method like mixing acid to get rid of them.

Last year a video of a Muslim man walking with an air gun and saying that he would shoot stray dogs with it went viral on social media. When police caught him he said that he did it to protect his kids from stray dogs on their way to the madrasa. He claimed that the air gun he carried could not kill a dog.

On noticing the cruelty of Syed one cannot help but remember the Kerala incident in which few Muslim men fed a coconut laden with explosives to a pregnant elephant as a result of which she died.