No income or aid, parents of child mauled by Rottweilers forced to leave Chennai

CHENNAI: Their child, all of five years, was mauled in a public park by two ferocious rottweilers that were not muzzled or even leashed. Following the incident, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) closed the park, which cost them their livelihood as the caretakers of the facility. And shutting down the park also robbed them of the tiny space inside that they had made their home.

Three months on, the man, now unemployed, is in his native village in Villupuram, separated by hundreds of kilometres from his wife and child who are in her native in Kerala.

For this family that lived in the park and made a living out of it, the horrific pet dog attack incident on May 5 was a tragedy in three episodes.

On May 5, two pet Rottweilers belonging to S Pugazhendi, a resident of Nungambakkam, attacked R Suraksha, daughter of the park’s watchman R Ragu and his wife Soniya, who had worked in the park for one-and-a-half years. The dogs were not leashed. During the attack, when the mother tried to rescue the child, she too was injured.

With the park's closure and the subsequent loss of their jobs, the parents filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking compensation of Rs 10 lakh from the Chennai Collector, the GCC, and the state government.

However, adding to their woes, the petition was dismissed with Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan holding that the State cannot be held responsible for the careless behaviour of the private individual who let his pet dogs in the street without a leash, and said compensation could be sought from the pet owners.

The dog owner had assured Raghu financial assistance for the treatment and education for the child, but the parents allege that they didn’t receive a penny.

Instead, the Chennai Corporation paid for the plastic surgery of the grievously injured child and other treatment which cost Rs 5.30 lakh.

But in the absence of a stable income or sufficient aid, Ragu and Soniya have been left high and dry.

“The Corporation used to pay us a monthly salary of Rs 15,000. After the incident, we requested the authorities to retain our job, but they refused,” lamented Soniya. “So, after the surgery, I moved to my native place in Kerala because we don’t have a stable income.”

Recalling the gruesome attack on her daughter, she said that the two pet dogs had a history of attacking other animals in the park. “The two Rottweilers would even attack the hens in the park. We had warned the owners and urged them to leash and muzzle their pets, yet they continued to bring them to the park without a leash,” Soniya told DT Next. “When the crowd gathered, they immediately took the dogs to their house which is near the park. Since they own a blood bank in the area, they had an ambulance. But, they did not help my child to be taken to a hospital.”

Soniya worries that their daughter is struggling with the trauma and requires counselling. The family has stopped sending her to school for now. “After I shifted to Kerala, nobody from the Chennai Corporation has enquired about my daughter,” averred the parents.