The Supreme Court on Friday modified its August-11 directions, saying that sterilised and immunised strays may be released back into their areas, bringing much cheer among dog lovers. “Prohibition on release of strays shall be stayed. They shall be dewormed, vaccinated, etc, and sent back to the same area,” said a three-judge Bench.
According to an earlier order of a two-judge Bench, the authorities in Delhi and its suburbs were asked to move all stray dogs into shelters, expressing concern over the rising “menace of dog bites leading to rabies”, leading to widespread protests by animal welfare groups.
The three-judge Bench, however, said that dogs with rabies or aggressive behaviour should be immunised and kept in shelters. The Bench also made it clear that the earlier order for rounding up strays will remain. It also disallowed public feeding of dogs saying that “dedicated feeding spaces of stray dogs” should be created as there have been instances due to such public feeding.
The top court also indicated a national policy on stray dogs after giving hearings to all the states. “The whole problem is because of the inaction of local authorities… Rules are framed, but no implementation carried out, creating a problem today. On one hand, humans are suffering, on the other hand animal lovers want dogs protected,” the Bench was quoted as saying
On August 11, the SC issued directions to permanently relocate all canines from streets to shelters “at the earliest”.
“This is the time to act. All these animal activists and all these so-called animal lovers…will they bring back all those children who have fallen prey to rabies? Will they put life back in those children? Let’s take a practical view of the matter. When the situation demands, you have to act,” it said, refusing to entertain intervention applications of animal rights activists.
The order sparked strong protests and legal challenges with animal welfare groups claiming that it was against existing rules that state that stray dogs should be released to their original site after being sterilised at shelters. Calling for humane solutions like vaccination and neutering, they warned that putting all strays in shelters may lead to problems like overcrowding and culling.
Following this, the top court set up a three-judge bench.
