New Delhi, Sep 5 (PTI) A group of animal activists from Delhi NCR met Mayor Shelly Oberoi on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum against the alleged picking up of stray dogs by the MCD without any order ahead of the G20 Summit.

Around 20 activists from the House of Stray Animals and Happy Tails Foundation visited the MCD office and requested the Mayor to “return” all stray dogs to their respective territories that were allegedly picked up.

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The MCD has officials have denied the allegations.

"Our demands include returning all stray dogs to their respective territories, immediately stop picking up of dogs, passes for all animal-related vehicles during G20, stop picking up of sterilised dogs, community kitchen and vaccination," House of Stray Animals founder Sanjay Mohapatra said.

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The activists have claimed that they have got assurance from the Mayor and that action will be taken soon.

On August 2, an order issued by the MCD said that the civic body would remove stray dogs from the streets of the national capital for sterilisation ahead of the G20 Summit. The dogs will be kept at the Animal Birth Control centres temporarily and later released back to the same locations they were picked up from.

However, the MCD soon revoked the order.

"An order was issued a month ago by the MCD's veterinary department for such work, but it was later revoked. Right now, the MCD is not picking any dogs from the city," a senior official from the civic body said.

Ambika Shukla from People For Animals' NGO said there is “no need to remove friendly and sterilised dogs” from the streets.

"The animal welfare community reached out to MCD to help collect the dogs kindly and safely. Had local caretakers been involved in the process as we suggested, there would have been no cruelty, no chasing and no missing dogs," Shukla said.

"Rough, untrained class 4 staff cannot be expected to handle dogs humanely. Why not take those who can?" she asked.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)