Cruel Dog-Killing Methods Exposed on ‘Paradise Island’

International Animal-Protection Groups Reveal Graphic Footage of Dogs Killed in Barbaric Ways in Mauritius

For Immediate Release:
November 3, 2016

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

PETA U.K. and International Animal Rescue (IAR) have released shocking video footage in which workers from the government-funded Mauritius Society for Animal Welfare (MSAW) violently catch and kill stray dogs, apparently by stabbing a needle through their chests to administer an often unreliable and extremely painful lethal injection. In the video, filmed at a Port Louis facility in September, as many as 20 dogs are killed in full view of one another: while one worker throws the dogs to the ground and stands on them to hold them in place, another administers a hit-or-miss lethal injection aimed at the heart. The dogs then stagger around and eventually collapse, while the remaining ones try desperately to escape by climbing the gates and walls of the kennel.

PETA U.K. and IAR have since launched a petition calling for the introduction of a national humane dog-management program, an investigation into MSAW’s activities, and a complete overhaul of MSAW leadership and staff.

“Homeless dogs have a hard enough time as it is, without being killed in painful ways,” says PETA U.K. Director Elisa Allen. “The only civilized and effective way to curb the population of stray dogs is to prevent more puppies from being born in the first place by implementing a comprehensive spay/neuter program—which is precisely what we’re calling on the Mauritian government to do. And if dogs must be euthanized, the very definition of that word is ‘kind death,’ yet the killing methods we’ve documented are absolutely cruel.”

“Anyone with a trace of humanity will find this footage unbearable to watch,” adds IAR CEO Alan Knight OBE. “It is chilling to observe the callous indifference of the dog killers towards their victims. Mauritius promotes itself as a ‘paradise island’ for international holidaymakers, but it is a veritable hell on Earth for dogs.

“One minute a dog—perhaps even someone’s pet—is seen lying in the sun, causing no harm or nuisance to anyone,” Knight continues. “The next moment, the dog has been caught in a net, flung into the back of the van, and carried off to a slow and painful death.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org or InternationalAnimalRescue.org.