Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has demanded an immediate closure of a Web community that "instigates violence" towards dogs.
In a letter to the Union Information and Technology secretary, the organisation has urged the Central government to direct Google to block "some illegal and cruel content posted on its social networking site Orkut."
"We have also requested him to initiate appropriate action against the members who claimed to have committed acts in violation of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Act) 1960," PETA-India coordinator (Campaigns and Legal Affairs) N G Jayasimha told PTI.
In fact, the letter followed after PETA spotted topics on Orkut community on 'I hate dogs', which discussed 'How 2 kill a dog?'.
Through the discussion, PETA volunteers figured out that one of the members of the community "suggests killing of puppies by dropping them from a building" and also "admits to throwing three puppies", another member claims, "I have killed two by my car after 1,012 hard tries near my place. One was a small puppy on which I dragged my bike."
"Instances such as these indicates a disturbing trend. People who are violent to animals rarely stop there. Studies show that people who abuse their animal companions are likely to abuse their kids. A person who comes home and kicks the dog is probably just warming up," Jayasimha said.
When contacted, a Google spokesperson said, "All the Orkut contents are created by users not monitered by us. We take the abuse seriously and are constantly developing new tools to review inappropriate content on the site. At the same time, we put a certain amount of trust in our users to notify us of violations, When we learn about the violations, we act quickly to remove inappropriate content. We have done that in many cases, and will continue to do so."
