Thiruvananthapuram: A pet dog met with a tragic end due to human callousness and greed. Thakkudu, the seven-year-old Labrador, sat on the streets for 32 days hoping its master will take it home, but it suffocated to death after it was hooked and dragged by some people.
Its owner belonging to Puliyarakonam in the city wanted to get rid of the pet and turned it over to an autorickshaw driver to be taken to a dog hostel.
The driver, who was paid Rs 6,500 for the job, drove some 5 km from the dog’s home and dumped it on the streets to fend for itself.
K.C. Ashok, volunteer of People for Animals, in his Facebook post, says Thakkudu had reached its master’s household as a 32-day-old puppy.
Its misfortune began when two children, relatives of the owner, came on a visit and developed symptoms of allergy. He consulted an allopath, who advised him to get rid of the dog, blaming it for the allergy.
He decided to pack off the dog to a hostel and entrusted the job to the auto driver. But the callous man pocketed the money and abandoned the dog.
Some passersby tried to befriend the cute Thakkudu but it refused to leave the spot “in the hope that the master will come soon and he should be easy to spot. It lay there, braving the elements, days and nights, surviving on crumbs thrown at it by local people,” says Ashok.
Finally, the PFA found a person willing to adopt Thakkudu, but the pet’s reaction was same to all strangers; snarl and bark at them.
The adoptive man came along with three people, who hooked it around the neck and dragged it. The untrained handlers had no idea the knot will tighten and choke it. “It was all over in no time, Thakkudu fell dead on the spot,” Ashok says.
Reading the Facebook post that Thakkudu was not taken to the hostel, the master rushed to the spot to fetch it back home. But that was a tad late. “Thakkudu’s earthy travails were over by then,” says Ashok.
