Sri Lanka's culture ministry has strongly condemned the country's police for holding a mass wedding of sniper dogs, which offensively used traditional Buddhist symbols.
Police married nine pairs of dogs on a platform decorated with white cloth and flowers in a ceremony resembling a traditional marriage.
According to the BBC, police have defended the wedding, saying that it was done to promote the domestic breeding of sniffer dogs, but in a statement they also apologised for their actions and for causing any offence to cultural and religious sensibilities.
Culture Minister TB Ekanayake said that police officers had contemptibly devalued traditional weddings in a devoutly Buddhist country.
According to the report, Ekanayake said that such an incident had never happened before in Sri Lanka and that he had written to the inspector-general of police asking him to conduct a full inquiry.
The police said that the structure where the weddings were staged had nothing to do with Buddhism.