STOP THE CRUEL CAPTURE OF INDIA’S COMMUNITY DOGS

Community dogs, or Indian Pariah dogs—which many ignorant news channels have casually and wrongly reduced to “stray dogs” or “Bedi nai”—are not outsiders. They are a part of the ecosystem of every place they live in.

Since the Supreme Court’s suo motu proceedings last year, these innocent beings have been troubled in every way possible. They are beaten, burnt, harassed, villainized and treated as a problem by the State and by sections of society.

Now, Municipal authorities across the country are wrongfully capturing healthy, sterilized community dogs and putting them into poorly managed shelters—shelters that appear to have been created without proper scientific planning, without adequate guidance from genuine animal welfare workers, and, most importantly, without putting the welfare of the dogs at the centre of the process.

There seems to be no scientific thought. No humane plan. No understanding of the lives of these animals.

Every day, social media is flooded with videos of innocent dogs being cruelly caught by municipal workers, dragged into vans and taken away into oblivion. In many cases, their caretakers never find them again.

These are not numbers. These are living, sentient beings. They have names. They have people who feed them, care for them, take them to the veterinarian, watch over them and love them.

Their disappearance leaves people heartbroken.

This is unacceptable.

We, the people of India, demand:

- An immediate end to the brutal handling and wrongful capture of healthy, neutered and sterilized community dogs.

- The immediate release and return of dogs who have been wrongfully captured.

- Immediate scientific and humane management of shelters, with genuine animal welfare workers and volunteers involved in their administration and oversight.

- The immediate involvement of the animal-loving and animal-welfare community in the management of these shelters.

- Transparency and accountability about where captured dogs are being taken, how they are being treated, and what happens to them.

We are completely clueless as to why one of India’s most deeply held values—“Ahimsa Paramo Dharma”—is being ignored every single day.

Why are our Indies being treated so inhumanely?

Why are workers handling them as though they are objects to be disposed of rather than sentient beings capable of fear, pain, attachment and love?

We want every wrongfully captured dog released and returned.

Roll back this order today.

India cannot call itself compassionate while its most vulnerable beings are being subjected to fear and cruelty.

And if their voices continue to be ignored, we, the people, will take to the streets to stand up for our voiceless sentient beings.

Because they cannot speak for themselves.

So we will.