New Delhi: Dog rescuers and animal feeders in Delhi have criticised the Supreme Court’s latest directive on stray dogs, calling it “ignorant” and “poor judgement”, after the top court Monday ordered that all strays in Delhi-NCR be removed from public spaces within eight weeks and housed permanently in dedicated shelters.
In a significant order, the apex court instructed the Delhi government, NDMC and other municipal corporations to immediately begin picking up stray dogs from all neighbourhoods and coordinate to set up adequate shelter facilities within eight weeks.
It ruled that once housed, no dog should be released back into the streets, colonies, or public places, and warned that action would be taken against anyone or any organisation obstructing the process.
The bench emphasised that infants and young children must be protected from stray dog attacks “at all cost”. This follows the court’s suo motu action last month, after it took note of a media report highlighting cases of dog bites resulting in rabies.
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‘A band-aid fix’
Calling the ruling short-sighted, Ditej Garg, who runs Earthlings Trust, a dog shelter based in Delhi NCR, described it as “a band-aid fix devised by someone sitting in an air-conditioned chamber without knowing the nitty-gritty of how the ecosystem works”.
He told ThePrint that the order fails to address the root causes of the stray dog issue and “turned out to be more of a rant than a judgment”.
Founded in 2018, the NGO has cared for more than 5,000 dogs and currently provides permanent shelter to more than 350 dogs.
Garg also flagged a legal vacuum over dog ownership in India. “There is no formal adoption procedure or registry. I have 20 dogs at home, some for over 10 years, but if someone complains tomorrow that they are strays, the authorities can take them away.”
Kamini, a volunteer with a rescue group in Delhi, warned that the judgment had emboldened those who dislike dogs. She said she feared “cases of poisoning and killing will rise” and that the order was impractical given the scale of Delhi’s stray population, which she estimated to be between three and seven lakh.
“It’s the Supreme Court’s decision, but it feels like vigilante justice,” she said, adding that the top court was expected to consider multiple perspectives before passing such a sweeping order. “In eight weeks, how many shelters can they realistically build for an unaccounted dog population this size?”
The last survey of dogs in Delhi was reportedly carried out in 2009 when the number turned out to be 5,60,000. After which the MCD decided to conduct another one after 15 years in 2024, but this was not done.
Kamini also pointed out that many strays are vaccinated, sterilised, and peacefully coexisting in their neighbourhoods. “Even if I believe that they’re not going to kill the dogs, they will let them die in overcrowded, underfunded shelters,” she told ThePrint.
Rescuers also pointed out that removing sterilised dogs could backfire.
Anoushka, who runs Modern Mowgli, a small NGO for rescuing strays, argued that removing sterilised and vaccinated dogs would be counterproductive. “Even if you remove these dogs, others from outside—unsterilised and unvaccinated—will take over the territory. That creates more chaos and increases the risk of rabies which eventually goes against everything the court’s directive intends to do,” she said.
Meet Asher, lawyer and head of PETA India, said there are currently no shelters in Delhi that can house stray dogs for “institutional rehabilitation,” a term also used by the Delhi High Court. “Creating such shelters will take years and require significant funding,” he said, adding that land would have to be identified, space allotted, and infrastructure built, none of which is currently feasible.
He stressed that the Supreme Court’s eight-week deadline to remove all stray dogs from public spaces was “absolutely impossible” to implement, noting that even in eight years the task would be difficult given the lack of land in cities like Delhi and Mumbai.
According to him, only unsterilised dogs or those with biting complaints can be picked up, and that too for sterilisation or observation under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules. “Picking up healthy, sterilised dogs is still illegal under ABC rules,” Asher said.
Why not strengthen ABC rules?
Several rescuers stressed that the answer lay in implementing the ABC Rules—a set of guidelines for the management of the stray dog population through vaccination and sterilisation—and not in mass removal.
In Delhi, the ABC programme has been operational for the past two decades under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), with 20 centres currently operational. The full funding for the programme is given by the state government to local bodies, who then disburse it to the ABC centres.
“If the ABC had been enforced properly, or if funds had been invested in municipal facilities, trained staff, and proper fencing, we wouldn’t be here,” Kamini said, alleging that in some resident welfare associations (RWAs), people even offer money to municipal drivers to take away sterilised dogs.
Garg echoed this, pointing out that ABC Rules, introduced in 2001 and amended in 2023, require sterilised dogs to be vaccinated against rabies. “It’s the same people, the same stakeholders, and the same species being subjected to whatever is decided,” he said.
Expecting this directive to be executed without casualties or problems, he argued, was “an uneducated assumption” on the court’s part.
“If the government claims to have sterilised five lakh dogs, rabies deaths should have dropped drastically. If they haven’t, then either the vaccinations didn’t work, or the vaccines procured were substandard, something the court hasn’t examined,” he added.
He also mentioned that ABC centres often shut down for months at a time, with some areas like Ghaziabad and Greater Noida lacking any such facility. “The same people who failed to implement ABC are now going to be tasked with running pounds. It’s the same system, the same corruption,” Garg said.
For many rescuers, the ruling has turned personal. Kamini said she was deeply attached to the five dogs in her colony, especially two named Metro and Kipper, and feared for their future. “Kipper was once run over by a car, breaking both her legs, and we cared for her for months. Now, nothing protects her from being picked up,” she said.
Animal welfare workers also worry the order will give RWAs an easy path to have dogs removed, increasing conflict and cruelty cases. As Kamini put it: “This is unnecessary pain and suffering for animals who were living out their natural lifespan in peace.”
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
The only solution to the stray dog menace is mass culling. The Supreme Court must allow the municipal authorities to cull stray dogs.
Deaths due to stray dog bites (rabies) and maulings have risen sharply over the last decade. This has emerged as a very significant threat to the vulnerable sections of society – children and elderly. In this situation, the government must prioritize the safety and well being of the citizens over animal rights.
Mass culling is the only possible solution to this problem.