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Animal rights activists in Tehran

Iranian video showing stray dogs' killings sparks protests in major cities

GDN

A horrific video showing the killings of stray dogs by lethal injection in the Iranian city of Shiraz has sparked protests in at least two major cities and drawn condemnation from animal rights defenders across the country.

The footage, which has gone viral in Iran, depicts a group of men cruelly putting down stray dogs by injecting them with something. The animals instantly howl and twitch in agony before they die.

It appears to be part of a regional effort to control the canine population, often carried out by private contractors, but the local authorities deny any link to the incident.

The video has triggered rare protests in recent days against animal cruelty in the capital Tehran and the southern city of Shiraz. On Sunday, hundreds of people gathered in front of Iran's environment agency in Tehran, holding up placards and wearing orange ribbons, to demand perpetrators to be brought to justice.

Some of the placards read: "stop killing animals", "stop animal cruelty", "dogs are man's best friends" and "dogs are angels created by God". Similar protests have also been taken place in Shiraz in front of the city's main municipality last week.

Protesters in Tehran demanded the country's head of environmental protection organisation, Massoumeh Ebtekar, to reassure them that those behind the brutal killings would be prosecuted.

Ebtekar, who serves as a vice-president in Hassan Rouhani's cabinet, appeared among the protesters and promised her agency would introduce laws to protect animal rights.

She subsequently wrote to the country's interior minister asking him to put an end to unconventional methods used to curb the population of stray dogs or control infections spread by them.

Targol Ghasemi, one of the protesters, told the state news agency that such killings are against animal rights.

"Activists want the killings to be stopped and instead we should make a shelter for them and vaccinate them," she told the Irna news agency.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Dog slaughter video outrages animal lovers
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