New Delhi, Dec 29:  In a ghastly incident, two three-month-old stray puppies living on a secluded land in Dwarka area here were allegedly killed with the body of one found hung from a noose on a tree, officials said Thursday.

The Delhi Police has registered an FIR in the matter on a complaint from a community dog feeder Vanessa Alphonso who had found their bodies on Wednesday morning, they said. Stray Dog Beaten To Death in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, Two Booked After Video Goes Viral

"The puppies were vulnerable as their mother was taken away by MCD officials for sterilisation surgery on Tuesday morning. Six puppies were living on a vacant land around the local elementary school. On Tuesday evening we could not spot two of them. We thought they could be playing around," Alphonso told PTI.

The next morning, when she went to feed the puppies, she noticed something red lying in the bushes which was the carcass of a puppy. Animal Cruelty in MP: Irked by Barking, Two Men Kill Stray Dog in Indore; Arrested

The carcass of another puppy was hanging from a noose on a tree, she said as she broke down while narrating the grotesque discovery.

She alerted the police, who rushed to the scene and took the carcasses for autopsy.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Harsha Vardhan said a complaint was received on Wednesday regarding killing of stray dogs in a secluded park in Dwarka Sector-9.

"A case under Indian Penal Code section 429 (mischief by killing or maiming animal) was registered on Wednesday at the Dwarka South police station. The post-mortem of the carcasses was conducted. Efforts are being made to identify and arrest the accused," Vardhan said

The ghastly incident comes within a month of the killing of a pregnant dog allegedly by students and staff of Don Bosco Technical Institute in Okhla South East Delhi, raising concerns about atrocities against dogs by humans.

"There has been a spate of horrific attacks against dogs in the recent past, most notably, a doctor in Lucknow who deliberately ran over two pups, students of Don Bosco Technical Institute who beat a pregnant dog to death with hockey sticks, a nurse who drowned nine pups, a delinquent who stabbed a sleeping dog and many more.

"It is shocking to see what a sadistic society we have become where a young pup could be so cruelly hung to death. We need a zero-tolerance policy against animal abuse," said Ambika Shukla, a trustee of People For Animals.

Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi took to Twitter posting a screenshot of a Facebook post informing about the alleged incident.

The screenshot also showed the purported photos of two dogs. One of them is seen hanging from a tree, while the carcass of the other is lying on ground.

The Facebook post claimed that the incident took place on Tuesday evening.

"This is unbelievable. How. Anyone can think of doing this, much less do it, is unimaginable. Logic says no but the full force of the heart says the perpetrators must meet same fate as victims," Singhvi tweeted.