The Supreme Court of India has amended its previous order, asking officers in Delhi and its suburbs to transfer all stray dogs to shelters amidst extensive protests by animal welfare groups.
A bench of three-judges stated that stress should be released after vaccination and sterilization, but said that dogs with rabies or aggressive behavior should be vaccinated and kept in shelters.
The court also banned feeding stray dogs in public places and ordered the dedicated areas to be established for this purpose.
On August 11, a two-judge bench expressed concern over the “growing” threat to dog bites for rabies in Delhi and its suburbs.
Municipal sources say that Delhi’s stray dog ​​population is one million, in which suburban Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram are also seeing growth.
According to the World Health Organization, there are millions of stray dogs in India and the country accounts for 36% of the total rabies related deaths in the world.
To deal with the danger of the dog, on August 11, the Supreme Court ordered the authorities to score all stray dogs in the capital and its suburbs.
This ordered the authorities to build shelters to give houses to these dogs in eight weeks time.
The order went against the existing rules that it suggests that stray dogs should be released on their original site after the shelters are sterilized, facing strong opposition and legal challenges from many animal welfare groups.
He called for more human solutions such as vaccination and neutrings and warned that putting everyone in shelters would create problems like congestion and kalming.
After the backlash, the Supreme Court established a bench of three judges to hear the challenge.
In Friday’s judgment, the court stayed the earlier order to score all stars, stating that non-invasive, non-infected dogs could be released on their capture site after vaccination and neutords.
The court also said that animals lover could apply for municipal corporations, but these dogs were not to be returned on the road.
The court said that action would be taken against people found to be stray dogs in public areas and animal welfare groups would be warned against intervening with its orders.
The Supreme Court has also said that it will form a national policy around stray dogs after hearing the pending cases pending in various states.
The verdict has been welcomed by animal welfare groups.
Alokperna Sengupta, director of Human World for Animals India, said it was “balanced, structured and kind”.
However, he said that on the basis of scientific data, a clear criterion was required to be established to identify “aggressive dogs”, so that the court order was not misused to capture and limit dogs without justification or without individual bias.
