Dog meat given instead of venison, in Hambantota!

If you go to Hambantota and ask for venison .... you are given dog-flesh!

Hunters who have been trading in prohibited venison which incidentally was in great demand are secretly found selling a type of flesh for sometime in Hambantota. When investigating further about this, it was revealed that it was not venison but dog flesh that was sold and it is a transaction against the law as well.
These people have been able to evade the long arm of the law without any complaint against them.

It is understood that this 'game' racket has been in operation on a large scale in close proximity to small pockets of water filled for animals to make use of by the Wild Life officers in areas where broken tanks are found as a result of the serious drought that affected Hambantota District. Animals such as deer and mouse deer have become a prey in large numbers to these poachers.

Several poachers were taken into custody recently with such meat in their possession meant for sale and have been produced before courts. According to a tip-off received by Wild Life officers in Hambantota recently (01), on a raid conducted in Thammennawa area, Bandagiriya, two suspects have been arrested with close upon 25 kgs of deer flesh in their possession. Since the Wild Life officers had noticed a strong foul odour emanating from the area and had on the very next day made an inspection close to the area of the Reserve from which this bad odour came, they had come across parts of bodies of skulls of killed dogs,skin, feet etcetera belonging to these animals.

As such, what Hambantota Wild Life officers say is that these poachers have engaged in mixing the flesh of deer with dog flesh too and had made arrangements to sell them at various places. They say that although steps have been taken to arrest the poachers with the flesh concerned in their possession and bring them to courts, the racket is nevertheless still in operation.

What Wild Life officers say is that they are not in a position to take legal action against the offence of killing dogs and therefore people who are familiar in the consumption of animal flesh should take note of this.

Ambalantota -- Ajith Pushpakumara