NEW DELHI – Animal lovers and campaigners in New Delhi prayed on Tuesday to show their opposition to a recent Supreme Court order over stray dogs. This was different from their typical way of protesting. About 200 people gathered at the famous Hanuman Mandir and tried to go to Bangla Sahib. They asked for heavenly help to reverse the order that has caused so much anger.
At midnight, campaigners gathered at Hanuman Mandir for a prayer meeting. They held up signs that said “Awara nahi, humara hai” (They are not stray, they are ours) and performed the Hanuman Chalisa. They then marched toward Bangla Sahib, but police halted them outside the gurudwara.
“We are tired after days of protesting, so today we came here to ask God for help to give us strength in this fight,” an activist said. He said that they would keep pushing for the Supreme Court to reverse its judgment, which they say has already caused officials to “pick up these voiceless animals from the streets at night.”
The Supreme Court bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan issued an order on August 11 that caused the dispute. The court said that the “whole problem” of stray dogs was caused by “inaction” by local governments and told that all stray canines from Delhi-NCR should be taken to shelters and not let back out on the streets. The injunction further said that anyone who gets in the way of the effort would face serious punishment, such as being held in contempt of court.
Animal rights activists and celebrities, on the other hand, have strongly opposed the instruction, saying that the area doesn’t have the right infrastructure and resources to care for the estimated thousands of stray dogs. They say that the decision goes against the Animal Birth Control (ABC) laws, which say that dogs who have been spayed or neutered and vaccinated must be returned to where they came from.
The Supreme Court has put off its decision on a request to stop certain of the August 11 directions. A new three-judge panel has taken over the case. The court has not yet decided what to do with the appeal to delay the relocation order after hearing arguments from both sides.