Four-year-old mauled by stray dogs near Bangalore

After two children fell prey to stay dog menace Bangalore, it was the turn of a four-year-old boy in Ramanagaram, about 50 kms from here, to be mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs yesterday.

Police said a pack of street dogs pounced on four-year-old Yasin when he was answering his nature’s call just outside his house in Ramanagaram’s Yarab Nagar around 6 am on Friday morning.

Yasin reportedly bled to death on the spot as the canines had tore open the flesh at several places on his body. The dogs had apparently held the boy in their jaws and dragged him all over the place.

Since it was early in the day and nobody had come out of their houses yet, the helpless boy’s cries went unheard. By the time the family members came out, Yasin had breathed his last, police said.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who represents Ramanagaram assembly constituency, called up the Yasin’s inconsolable father on the phone and expressed his condolences. Yasin’s mother and father were devastated over losing their only son.

The local administration officials have promised a compensation of Rs 100,000 to the family of the victim.

Meanwhile, officials said Yarab Nagar in Ramanagaram, a Muslim-dominated locality, had a lot of meat shops that attract a large number of dogs, which had turned ferocious by feeding on the waste thrown by the shops.

Though the civic administration deployed dog-catchers in the locality about a month ago, the locals had chased away the team. A case of assault by a few locals on the dog-catchers had been registered in the Ramanagaram town police station, officials added.
The ghastly killing of Yasin at Ramanagaram has once again brought the issue of stray dog menace in Karnataka under sharp focus. The mauling to death of nine-year-old Sridevi on January 5 and Manjunath on February 28 in Bangalore had triggerred a huge public outcry against the stray dog menace