Animal welfare organisations have strongly reacted to Supreme Court’s order on removal of stray dogs from certain areas like public places and educational institution premises in Delhi calling it “unsustainable”, “counter-productive” and “recipe for cruelty”.
Over the “alarming rise of dog-bite incidents” in Delhi, the Supreme Court has once again issued a major order regarding stray dogs. The Supreme Court ruled on Friday, November 7 that places like educational institutions, hospitals, bus stands, railway stations, playgrounds etc. must be made completely free of stray dogs. The apex court said that these areas must be fenced properly to prevent the entry of stray dogs.
PETA India calls SC directive a “recipe for cruelty and chaos”
PETA India reacted to the directive saying it is a ‘A Recipe for Cruelty and Chaos’.
In a statement, the animal welfare organisation said, “The Supreme Court’s reported directive to round up millions of cows from highways and dogs from everywhere from bus shelters to college campuses—to be imprisoned in imaginary shelters—is nothing short of a recipe for cruelty and chaos. So detached from reality is the order that it even calls for bus depots and railway stations to be fully barricaded with boundary walls to keep out dogs, apparently by judges who forgot to factor in how buses and trains will get out.”
It further said, “India has an estimated 52.5 million dogs living on the streets, 8 million already languishing in overcrowded shelters awaiting good homes, and around 5 million stray cattle—largely victims of the dairy industry that abandons male calves and ‘spent’ cows once their milk production declines. The only humane and practical ways to address these issues, grounded in science and reality, are the nationwide implementation of the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, and adopting a vegan (dairy-free vegetarian) lifestyle.”
“Unsustainable and counter-productive”: Humane World for Animals India
Animal welfare organisation Humane World for Animals India criticised the ruling calling it “Unsustainable and counter-productive”.
“We are deeply concerned with the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directing the removal of street dogs from public institutions. This is a directive that is unsustainable and counter-productive, since it lacks consideration of the law established by Parliament, the infrastructure of our public institutions and lives of street dogs in India. Such a sweeping order again risks displacement and death for lakhs of community dogs across India,” stated Alokparna Sengupta, managing director, Humane World for Animals India.
“We recognise the need to ensure public safety, and progress has been demonstrated via scientific and consistent ABC/ARV and community engagement programs. However, removing community animals from their habitats and permanently relocating them to shelters- which presently do not exist, is likely to increase human – dog conflict further. Removing community dogs creates territorial vacuums, leading to the re-entry of unsterilised, unvaccinated dogs and worsening the very issue the order seeks to address,” the organisation further stated.
It suggested, “The Animal Birth Control Rules and long-standing judgments of the very same Courts have already recognised that sterilise–vaccinate–return is the only sustainable and compassionate method to manage the street dog population. Relocating dogs to shelters is impossible at scale given the complete lack of infrastructure, capacity and resources and antithetical to the ABC Rules, 2023.”
“Campuses around the country have shown that living in coexistence is possible. We hope the court will consider the submissions of various organizations directly engaged in social work and give space to the progress that has taken place over decades.”