New Delhi: The Supreme Court’s recent order to Delhi-NCR officials to pick up all stray dogs and move them to special shelters within eight weeks has generated a nationwide controversy. Several states are now thinking about doing the same thing. The ruling, which came after a suo motu lawsuit over escalating dog attacks, has made some residents happy and animal rights groups very angry.
The Supreme Court, made up of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan, told the government to build shelters for the dogs and made it clear that no caught animal should be let back out onto the streets. The court further said that anyone who got in the way of the drive would be held in contempt.
Several states are already feeling the effects of this order:
Rajasthan: The Jodhpur bench of the Rajasthan High Court gave its own broad interim orders to deal with the problem of stray animals on the same day as the SC verdict. The court told all of the state’s local entities to hold special events to get rid of stray dogs and other animals from public places while keeping them safe. It also said that anyone who gets in the way of the municipal workers doing their job could face legal punishment, including FIRs.
Tamil Nadu: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has said that Tamil Nadu must also follow the Supreme Court’s judgment. A top lawyer for the state administration said that the court had made it clear that it will tell the state’s chief secretary what to do. The court was considering a bunch of petitions about the stray cattle problem when these statements were made.
Uttar Pradesh: After the Supreme Court’s judgment, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council brought up the problem of “the terror of stray dogs” in their state. MLCs Dinesh Kumar Goyal and Vijay Bahadur Pathak sent out a warning saying that citizens, especially youngsters and the elderly, are being attacked all the time. They asked the government to take action right now to fix the matter.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has also been looking into ways to control stray dogs in Bengaluru. The Deccan Herald, on the other hand, says that the civic body is having trouble putting new programs into place, such a proposal to “microchip” canines, because there aren’t enough suppliers with the right skills.
People have different opinions about what the Supreme Court said. Many people in the area see it as a necessary step to keep people safe, while animal rights groups are strongly against it. For example, PETA India has said that the directive is “impractical, illogical, and illegal.” PETA says that taking dogs away by force will not only cause turmoil and pain for the animals, but it will also break the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, which say that canines must be sterilized and returned to their original territory. The group and others have said that this method could make problems between people and dogs worse and is not based on science.
The current debate and the actions of other state courts and governments show how difficult and controversial it is to deal with stray animals in India.