She Returned to Her Puppies to Die

Asem Mustafa Awan
Islamabad: She does not run away from the poison. That is what makes the footage unbearable.
In a short video received by this scribe, a nursing stray dog staggers across a brick-paved street, her body failing, her movements frantic and uncoordinated. Poison has taken hold. Her breathing is laboured.

Foam gathers at her mouth. Yet instead of fleeing, she turns back—toward her puppies.
They are barely weeks old, still struggling to walk properly. As she collapses beside them, they swarm her instinctively, nudging her face, crawling over her belly, searching for warmth and milk.

Within moments, the mother dog dies in visible agony, her body rigid, her eyes fixed, her pups crying beside her.
According to accounts accompanying the footage, the dog had been poisoned during a municipal operation against strays.

While the act of poisoning itself is not shown, municipal workers are visible at the scene in the video and photographs. What is evident is that no attempt was made to provide help, relief, or veterinary intervention as the animal writhed and died.
The sequence is not just disturbing—it raises grave legal questions.

For video click on the link:https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1311828454296287&set=a.430586585753816

Courts have repeatedly held that stray dogs are protected under law and that indiscriminate killing, particularly through poisoning, is illegal. Municipal authorities are bound to follow humane population-control measures such as vaccination and neutering.

Poisoning is neither humane nor lawful.
If municipal personnel were involved, then this incident represents a direct violation of those protections. Who authorized it? Under what directive? And why was an illegal and cruel method employed despite clear judicial guidance?
Poisoning is not a neutral act.

It is slow, painful, and panicked. It inflicts prolonged suffering not only on the animal but on those left behind. The puppies’ chances of survival without their mother are slim—a silent consequence rarely acknowledged in such operations.
What prevented this death from being quietly erased, as so many others are, was the dog’s final act. Her instinct to return to her pups brought her suffering into view. It forced witnesses. It forced a record.
This is no longer just a video. It is evidence demanding scrutiny.
An independent inquiry must establish where this occurred, who was present, and whether municipal authorities once again chose expedience over legality and humanity. Accountability is not optional when state actors are accused of acting outside the law.
The mother is dead. The puppies remain. The footage remains.
What must not remain is the silence that usually follows.