Two Monkeys Captured For Allegedly Dognapping, Murdering Over 200 Puppies In 'Retaliatory Attacks'

A rare and heartbreaking case of a 'gang war' between monkeys and dogs has been reported from the Indian state of Maharashtra.

An official with the state’s forest department has confirmed that two monkeys have been captured on Saturday, Dec. 18, for allegedly abducting at least 250 puppies and keeping them hostage on trees or home roofs, where they eventually died of starvation or after falling over.

The people of Majalgaon, a town located in the Beed district, are baffled by the menace that these monkeys were creating.

Locals say the gang war began after a group of dogs mauled a baby monkey to death. In retaliation, the two simians began kidnapping and murdering puppies.

The monkeys have allegedly killed more than 200 puppies over the last few months, a resident of the Lavool village claimed.

"Such incidents had been happening over the last three months. These two monkeys come to our village. They take away puppies with them to the roof of houses or at any other place at height. At such a height, these puppies don’t get any food or water. Hence, they died naturally many times. But sometimes they fell from a height and died. Over 200 puppies had lost their lives in our village,” a villager, Radhakishan Sonawane, told Press Trust of India (PTI).

However, Range Forest Officer Amol Munde said only 3 to 4 such incidents were reported from this village.

Munde said monkeys taking away puppies is part of their "habit".

"They take care of puppies. They used to keep puppies on roofs or tall trees. The puppies couldn’t survive at such places as they couldn’t get food or water. If a puppy escaped from the two monkeys it used to die after falling from a height," he said.

Debunking the stories of "retaliatory attacks", he added that there have been no reports about the death of any baby monkey in the Lavool village in the last few months.

A recent incident that was reported was about some people getting injured while being chased by the two monkeys.

"Monkeys generally don’t attack human beings but people are afraid. Some people were injured in the past few days while running away from these monkeys. However, no incident of any monkey bite was reported in this village," Munde said.

The trapped monkeys were shifted to their natural habitat, he added.