The Supreme Court of India on Friday ( 4th Feb 2022) has put a stay on a Delhi High Court order which held that community dogs (stray dogs) have a right to food and citizens have a right to feed them. The court passed the order on a plea filed by an NGO 'Humane Foundation for People and Animals' challenging the HC order.
The Delhi High Court in July last year had ordered that animals have a right to be treated with compassion, respect and dignity and protection of such beings is the moral responsibility of each and every citizen, including the governmental and non-government organisations. It had said that community dogs have the right to food and citizens have the right to feed community dogs but in exercising this right, they should not impinge upon the rights of others. It had said adequate care and caution should be taken to ensure that it does not violate the rights of others or cause any harm, hindrance, harassment and nuisance to other individuals or members of the society.
Challenging the order, the petitioner NGO argued that the HC’s directions were contrary to an order passed by the Supreme Court in 2015 in which the court had said, “There can be no trace of doubt that there has to be compassion for dogs and they should not be killed in an indiscriminate manner, but indubitably the lives of the human beings are to be saved and one should not suffer due to dog bite because of administrative lapse."
It submitted that the HC order was based upon several “blatantly misleading, irrelevant and factually incorrect statements and misinformation with regard to dog behaviour” and pleaded to quash it. “The guidelines passed by the Delhi High Court for feeding stray dogs in public places and the streets should not have been passed as several high courts, including the Allahabad High Court, have followed the Supreme Court’s request and not passed any order on the same issues between residents and dog feeders and asked parties to approach the apex court,” the petition said.
It said, “The HC follows the approach of the AWBI and makes unsubstantiated claims and passes judgment on the motivations, morality and character of the citizenry at large for objecting to and/or complaining about the menace and threats of stray and unowned dogs in their day-to-day lives.” The petitioner urged the top court to set aside all advisories, notifications and circulars of the Animal Welfare Board of India to RWAs, municipalities, police and/or any other governmental body or citizens, on issues relating to stray dog feeding arising out of the Delhi High Court.
A message on various whataspp group has also gone viral which says that a senior Supreme Court lawyer has asked the Municipal corporation to pick up all the dogs from the colony (Pic in the post). Well if the message is true then this is against dog rules 2001. No one has the authority to relocate stray dogs or pick them except for being sterilized.
The decision by the Supreme Court has dampened the spirits of dog feeders and caregivers across India. They fear that the hostile and apathetic environment which already exists for stray dogs and the dog feeders will only excalate and worsen with this stay order. It will only result in more man-dog and man-man conflict.
What the court and the honourable judges of India need to understand is that the faulty and apathetic implementation of the ABC program is the root cause of all this. If only the Animal Birth Control program was run in a systematic and humane manner then all this problem would have never occurred.
The Dog rules 2001 says that sterilization is the only legal way to control stray dog population and relocation of dogs is not permitted. But just how many of us are aware about this program? And just how many ABC centres are running in this country? Are they even running? Because in many parts of India there are no ABC centres and hence the stray dog population is multiplying indiscriminately. And the day is not far when the respective High courts may order removal of stray dogs from their cities as they may be forced to believe that the dogs are a threat to humans especially their children and the elderly.
In Delhi the ABC program has been running for almost 20 years and the result is right in front of us. The stray dogs have multiplied and have been declared a manace, nuisance, rabid, wild and a threat to the lives of our children.
The feeders on the other hand are called mad and they face constant harassment and humiliation by dog haters who unfortunately are in majority.
We Indians who have hardly any knowledge about canine rabies believe that stray indian dogs are all rabid. This is a myth which has still not been busted. A dog bite by a normal and healthy stray dog will never lead to rabies.
The academia of India has not taken this sector seriously hence we lack good scientific research on the Indian stray dogs.
This is what some of the researchers (Carpenter, 1980, Hubrecht 1995, Broom 1988, Hetts 1991, Boitani et AL. 1995, Aloff, 2010, Landsberg et. al. 2003, Serpell 1986, Arkow and Dow 1984) from the west have to say about stray dogs and their welfare:
1 Animal welfare relates to an animal's ability to adjust to, or cope with the prevailing conditions in which it finds itself. If the animal is suffering then it's welfare is poor. Mostly animals are capable of adapting to changes in their environment by making appropriate adjustments to their behaviour & physiology. Welfare problems arise when environmental conditions are so extreme that the animal is no longer able to cope successfully. To satisfy basic welfare criteria, animals need to be kept in conditions providing adequate food, water, ventilation and protected from the risk of injury and ill health.
2 Dog is a highly territorial animal. They defend their territories and in doing so may show aggression to dogs of other territory approaching their territory.
3 The popular perception of dog bite is that it is largely a problem caused by stray dogs. In a study conducted by researchers it was found that of the biting animals very few are from stray dogs. Almost 70 to 80 percent of the dog bites are from pet dogs. Hence, restraining the dog or chaining the dog makes them more likely to bite because they are not socialized. The stray dog on the other hand is highly socialized as he is mostly in the company of humans. Hence, stray dogs often bite as a defence machanism to protect themselves and their litter.
4 Keeping dogs in shelter homes reduces their median age from 12 to13 years to less than 2 years. Hence the only way to give a healthy and long life to a stray dog is to get him.adopted.
5 The problem of stray dog has to be approached by an intensive and effective campaign of public education which includes general information and education campaigns.
The Animal Welfare Board of India has to respond to the Supreme Court stay order very intelligently and scientifically. There are scientific evidences which prove that stray dogs are safe to be on the streets and are not a threat to the children and elderly provided they feel protected and are not beaten and shooed away from their territory. To sustain themselves within their territory they need to be fed. A dog living in a public place like a park, bus station, market etc. needs to be fed there itself because that's his home and the territory to which he belongs. By stopping his feeding we may only provoke him to attack. A hungry, malnutrition and unloved stray dog is more a threat to the society than a satiated and loved dog.
Educating people about dog behaviour and the ABC program and encouraging people to adopt the stray Indian dogs as pet dogs is the only humane and practical solution to eradicate stray dog problem in India.
Stopping feeding of dogs at public places or throwing them into shelters is no solution at all. Stopping their feeding or putting them in animal shelters will eventually lead to their death. It's better to euthanize them all than to give them a slow, torturous and inhuman death.
It's time the judiciary, the academia and the animal welfare organizations did something constructive and pave out policies which addresses the root cause of this man made menace ....... which unfortunately is due to the faulty implementation of the ABC program which is being done in an unsystematic manner using complaint centric approach.
We need to educate people of India about the Indian dog, the myths attached with him and how implementing the ABC program in a systematic manner with peoples participation can eventually lead to complete eradication of canine rabies and stray dog problem from India.