The blanket directive by the Supreme Court to clear the capital of stray dogs by getting them out of the country and the surrounding National Capital Region (NCR) has elicited the reaction of animal rights activists with PETA cautioning that the mass expulsion which involved euthanasia is not only scientifically unfit but also ineffective.
The Supreme Court today ordered the Delhi government and municipalities in Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad to immediately start picking out stray dogs in every neighbourhood and placing them in shelters saying that the four-footed must not be released back into the street.
PETA India’s Senior Director of Veterinary Affairs, Dr Mini Aravindan, issued a statement questioning the effectiveness of mass removal.
Cities consider the dogs in the neighbourhood as part of the family, and eviction and detaining dogs is neither scientific nor has it ever been successful. According to a survey of the population done in 2022-23, there are approximately 10 lakh community dogs in Delhi but only less than half of them are sterilised.
Massive forced relocation of an estimated 10 lakh community dogs in the streets of Delhi is bound to get communities that are strongly attached to them upset, chaos and cruelty at a mass scale as far as the dogs are concerned. According to the statement, it will eventually serve no purpose to control the number of dog populations, check rabies, or avert dog bite accidents.
Dr Aravindan cited the government requirement in 2001 to sterilise and vaccinate community dogs which she added has the result of making them quieter in behaviour. “Without effective dog sterilisation programme instituted by the Delhi government, there could be very few dogs on the run today,” said Dr Aravindam.
Rather than investing wasted efforts, time, and resources of the population in inefficient and inhuman deportation campaigns, it remains a feasible sterilisation programme that is still the solution as well as the necessity. Some of the notable initiatives would comprise a shutdown of unlawful pet stores and puppy farms that lead to animal abandonments, and the promotion of human beings to adopt a abandoned animal in an animal shelter or the roadside,” said the PETA position.
Terming as extremely grim the recent cases of dog bites, a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan gave a set of binding directions.
This is not being done out of our own interest, this is in the public interest. There should therefore be no sentiments of any type involved. Justice Pardiwala said action should be taken at the earliest. Remove dogs that are found in every area and put them in shelters. At least for now, forget the rules,” he advised with amicus curiae Gaurav Agarwala who proposed what can be done to deal with the menace of stray dogs.
Among the directions, the government of Delhi is required to develop shelter capacity to house at least 5,000 dogs within six to eight weeks as a first step. Such facilities should be equipped with enough human resources on sterilisation and vaccination, have CCTV cameras to supervise against any release and the ability to future scale.
What Are Animal Birth Control Rules That Top Court Called “Absurd” Over Stray Dog “Menace”
The Delhi government and civic bodies were asked on Monday by the Supreme Court to begin collecting stray dogs at an early date from all areas and house them in dog shelters, an order prompted by an increase in dog bites and rabies related deaths.
Another bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan also termed the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023 as absurd. The rules say that a stray dog has to be retrieved in one of the localities, sterilised as well as released into the same locality.
Collect stray pets of every locality and move them to shelter homes. So far as it goes, forget the rules said the bench.
They also added it was very grim.
The bench said that prompt measures should be put in place in order to address the scourge of dog attacks resulting to rabies.
The apex court asserted that children by no means are to be victims of stray dog bites that cause rabies. These rules are made in the larger ground of interest of the general population.
What Are Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023
Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules 2023 refers to a guideline issued by the Centre to provide stray dogs.
They aim at rendering stray dogs sterile and vaccinate them in order to curb their population and outbreak of rabies.
They were established to solve the conflict between humans and dogs, as well as bring animal welfare.
According to the Supreme Court, the dog shelters were supposed to house approximately 5,000 stray dogs and adequate staff should be stationed around the shelters to sterilise and vaccinate the canines.
The highest court also wanted a response of the authorities regarding the formulation of shelter homes in a span of eight weeks.
The court further warned that since the authorities come in the way of stray dogs picking up by any individual or institution, then a stern action will be prosecuted against these people.
It also instructed the authorities to establish a helpline in a week time so that all the cases of biting of dogs are reported rightly.
In 2024 there will be more than 37 Lakh Dog Bite Cases In India
The Centre had informed last month that India recorded more than 37 lakh cases of dog bite and 54 suspected cases of human rabies in 2024.
The percentage of dog bite cases reported in the Parliament by Union Minister SP Singh Baghel on July 22 was 37,17,336 with 54 as the total deaths suspected to be caused due to human rabies last year.
He explained that a theory has been designed to take care of this stray dog population and this should be done at the municipal level and that municipalities are to ensure that through the Animal Birth Control Programme the population is kept in check.
In more details, he explained that his ministry had given guidance in November 2024 to states and requested it to conduct the ABC Programme and related activities through local bodies with the aim to provide children including toddlers with the a secure and safe environment in an effect to prevent attacks by stray dogs.
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