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New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday continued to hear the batch of petitions on the stray dog menace. The bench of justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and NV Anjaria wanted to know why the petitioners were only arguing for the rights of dogs and their lives. They asked, "Don't chickens and goats have lives?"
The bench said, "What about other animal lives? What about chickens and goats? Don’t they have lives?" The court also stopped one petitioner from showing the photograph of an elderly dog bite victim. It said, "There is no need to show this photograph."
Arguing on behalf of the victim, the counsel said, "People are suffering due to stray dogs. Human rights have to be protected." He then went on to quote examples of Japan and US, which have "dramabox" shelters for dogs. The animals are taken to these shelter homes and put up for adoption. However if they are not adopted, after a particular period of time, they are euthanised. He highlighted that this was the reason that Japan has not see any stray attacks and they have also been rabies free since 1950.
The court then heard a supporter of letting strays stay where they were. His counsel argued that if the dogs are removed then this will lead to monkey menace and also cause major sanitation issues.
Countering his claim was the father of an 8-year-old girl who was bitten by a stray dog last year. He highlighted that it was not just his daughter who had suffered due to a stray attack, but another child had been killed by dogs. He argued that despite repeated complaints, the Noida Authority was not taking any action to check the stray dog menace. He prayed to the court to allow the Resident Welfare Association (RWAs) to declare their societies as "dog free zones."
Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal arguing for the dog lovers said, "We are here as dog lovers and as lovers of the environment." He received a sharp retort from the court, which asked, "What about other animals? What about chickens and goats? Don’t they have lives?"
To this Sibal replied, "I have stopped eating chicken because they are caged in such cruel manner." He further said that if one tiger turns into a maneater, all other tigers should not be labelled the same and killed.
He told the court that across the world, all countries follow the CSVR model. This is the capture, sterisilise, vaccinate, release model. This he argued "had brought down the dog population to almost zero in cities." He said that India's economic condition does not favour keeping dogs in shelters. He said that if they are moved to shelters it would put additional burden on municipal authorities across the country.
Senior counsel Colin Gonsalves added to Sibal's pro-strays argument, saying that data on dog bites was inflated. This he said was because every injection given to a dog bite victim is counted as a separate dog bite case. He further said that there had been no dog bite cases in 19 states since 2021.
The court however countered these arguments by senior lawyers. It said, "Our order was modified and restricted to the institutional areas, not the roads. Why do we need stray dogs inside schools or hospitals or courts? What’s the objection to removing them from institutional areas?"
Following the court's observation, the Solicitor General also supported the argument that everything in the case was centered around dog lovers and not animal lovers. He said that RWAs must be given the authority to decide whether dogs can roam around freely in the residential societies.
He further said that problems arise when even if 90% of the residents support removing the stray dogs, 10% insist on keeping them. He asked ,"What happens if tomorrow someone says that I want to keep a cow or a buffalo in my home?"
Another counsel for a dog bite victim said, "My client is a senior citizen who is a dog bite victim. There are a series of dog lovers here. We are not against dogs, but we have to curb stray dogs."
The court continued to hear the case, saying that they had all the time on the day to hear both sides.
