KUWAIT CITY, June 19: 24 dogs of the K9 Division of a private security company were killed on Thursday, June 17 in Shuaiba, sparking outrage when photos of were made public on social media over the weekend.

A concerned Kuwaiti citizen, Esmail Al Misri, has lodged a criminal case that is now awaiting investigation by the authorities.

Speaking to the Arab Times, he shared that the killing was seemingly motivated by revenge because workers had not been paid their salaries since April 2016 on account of a contract being revoked. Photographs circulating on the internet show the sickly frames of some dogs, casting speculation on the conditions they were kept in. “We know how dogs that are well-fed and well taken care of look. The photos were taken immediately after the incident so we can rule out dehydration as a cause of their sickly state”, Al Misri stated.

He expressed concerns that a further 90 dogs were awaiting a similar fate and hoped that intervention would come in time.

The Arab Times contacted the security company and an employee, with firsthand knowledge of the situation and speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that a lot of falsehoods were being spread online. He revealed that while handlers had not been paid for two months and a contract had been lost, there were other contracts in play and the dogs had been humanely euthanized solely for medical reasons.

He informed that all of the dogs that were selected to be put down were old and retired from service on account of medical conditions that included tumours, cataracts, chronic diarrhoea, hip dysplasia, while others were too aggressive. He claimed that the dogs had been seen by vets and diagnosed with these issues two years ago.

He also stated that the company had explored other alternatives and contacted animal welfare societies in Kuwait to facilitate the adoption of the dogs but all these attempts were unsuccessful. “These dogs were suffering in the condition they were in. In my opinion, this should have been done a year ago”, he said. He shared that in the past eight years, two dogs had been put down when their aggressive behaviour had become a liability while others had died of natural causes.

He did concede that mistakes had been made and the company was caught off guard in this situation, “The company had taken steps to euthanize small groups of dogs over a period of time but a member of our kennel staff jumped the gun and euthanized them all at once. He has been terminated for going against the procedure.” The executive strongly denied allegations that more dogs will be put down.

By Cinatra Fernandes Arab Times Staff