Construction workers in India have sparked controversy online after building a new road directly over a sleeping dog. The workers, near the Taj Mahal in Agra, were said to be working on a new road through the area when they came across the sleeping dog and decided not to wake him up or chase him off. Instead, they poured the hot tar directly over his prone body and proceeded to lay the road over his legs and paws. Activists have spoken out about the incident where the dog was buried alive below the boiling tar and then flattened by a roller that was brought out to set the street. He would have died in agony, with the boiling hot far burning the fur off his skin and in all of the photos available the animal appears to be dead already before the flattening roller.
They poured ‘Hot Damar’ over a sleeping dog in Agra; and that poor died not able to bear the pain. Animal love is also a facade of Ajay Bisht.
— PrashantPratap Singh (@iPrashantSingh) June 13, 2018
Yogi ji we can see that you didn’t give up the ‘Maya(माया)’ but definitely the ‘Moh(मोह)’ of the living! @PetaIndia pic.twitter.com/2fItpLo9AK
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The crew apparently then chose to leave the half-buried animal embedded in the road before shocked commuters drove past and complained. Local resident Virendra Singh said: "The dog's legs were buried under the tar and it was writhing in agony. The workers refused to break the road to remove it. The dog died after." A demonstration was held at the side of the road where the incident occurred, and a group of local residents and animal rights activists campaigned against the Public Works Department (PWD), which is responsible for the road work. The protesters are said to have seized the construction vehicles and forced work on the project to a stop, when a senior representative of the firm came out to meet with them and apologise. They then brought in a digger to remove the dog's dead body.
Action must be taken against those involved in pouring road construction material on a dog in Agra. @myogiadityanath pic.twitter.com/6vfkLfPaV8
— @पत्रकार पुरुषार्थ (@PurusharthZee) June 12, 2018
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Station house officer of Sadar police station, Narendra Kumar, confirmed that a case has been officially registered against the firm which was carrying out the repair work. PWD have so far refused to take responsibility for the incident, and have blamed a third party private firm they apparently outsourced the work to. Agra residents have also demonstrated outside the local police station to demand action against the "dog killers", with Anand Rai, a social activist, describing it as: "the height of cruelty." The project's contractor in-charge said an inquiry was underway and "those found guilty would be shunted out as punishment."