The police yesterday said that following investigations, no evidence was garnered to support the allegation that a large number of dogs had been chopped and killed by a group of men at Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice (WCB) on Sunday.
Pointing to the publication of a report in the Tuesday edition of the Stabroek News that stated that residents of the community had witnessed a group of men armed with cutlasses, sticks and ropes butchering about ten dogs in the area around midday on Sunday, the police, in a press release yesterday said that investigations had been launched into this.
The release said that ranks along with two members of the Guyana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA) visited the Bush Lot area on Tuesday after contacting the reporter who had written the article.
According to the police, the reporter said that she had heard about the killing of the dogs by several men at Bush Lot and “did not give any further information”. The reporter says she was merely asked for directions to locate persons in the area and this was provided to the police.
The release said that a number of residents were questioned though no written statements were taken and the villagers said that they had heard that between 12 to 15 men from another area had killed a large number of dogs.
Police stated that one woman said that last Saturday she went to the market and on her return home did not see two of her dogs and on Tuesday she saw a dog floating in a trench at the Bush Lot Sideline Dam that appeared to be one of her dogs.
The statement said that a male resident said that his dog was missing and he heard other residents saying that persons had chopped up his dog while another man said that he saw about 4 to 5 men running down a dog at Bush Lot Sideline Dam on Sunday.
He said that they caught the dog which managed to escape, but he did not see anyone chopping the dog.
Police asserted that when the ranks accompanied by the two GSPCA officials visited the area on Tuesday they saw one dog floating in the Bush Lot Sideline Dam trench.
“It was decomposed and there was no visible indication that it had been chopped, neither did the animal fit the description of any of the dogs stated as missing by the residents contacted.”
The statement said further, that around 9:40 Wednesday night an anonymous male caller telephoned the police at Fort Wellington Police Station and gave the name of a man who he alleged had killed five dogs last Saturday. The caller said that if the police did not take action he would put it in the newspapers, the police said.
The lawmen said that they contacted the named man “who has denied the allegation and stated that he is a lover of dogs and would not think of harming such animals.
It was observed that the man was the owner of ten dogs and six pups which were seen at his residence”.
