The Kannur district panchayat in Kerala has also approached the top court seeking direction to euthanise rabid-suspected or dangerous dogs.
Representational image of stray dogs. (Creative Commons)
The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has moved the Supreme Court, urging it to in the matter relating to the menace of stray dogs in the state and the plight of children who have been fatally bitten by them.
Observing that there had to be an enduring solution to the issue of stray dogs in Kerala, a bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice KV Viswanathan posted the matter for hearing on 16 August.
Besides the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, the Kannur district panchayat has also approached the top court seeking direction to euthanise rabid-suspected or dangerous dogs in the district.
The Kannur district panchayat told the court that it did not support the indiscriminate culling of stray dogs, but only those that were dangerous and a menace.
Former Union minister KJ Alphons also approached the court offering his suggestions to deal with the problem of stray dogs in the state.
Alphons told the court that he had given some “practical suggestions” to address the problem of stray dogs in the state.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), informed the court that the board had also proposed some suggestions.
Referring to several instances — including the death of an 11-year-old child — of people being killed by dogs, the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights referred to recent incidents in the Kottayam and Kozhikode districts.
The commission said that there were 5,794 cases of stray-dog attacks in 2019, 3,951 in 2020, 7,927 in 2021, 11,776 in 2022, and 6,276 cases up to 19 June this year.
Appearing for the NGO Friendicoes, senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy said that it, too, had some concrete suggestions.
He added that if the situation in Kerala was different from other places, then whether the Central law or the state law would apply might need to be decided.
The top court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra, with its 18 November, 2015, order, called for striking a balance between empathy for stray animals and the human being, as it permitted the municipal bodies to kill the irretrievably ill and wounded stray dogs suffering from rabies in accordance with the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the Animal Birth Control Rules 2001.
The court said, “We are disposed to think for the present that a balance between compassion to dogs and the lives of human being, which is appositely called a glorious gift of nature, may harmoniously co-exist” while it gave a go ahead to the killing of the stray dogs who had become a menace to the people.
The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights filed an intervention application in a 2019 matter in which the Animal Welfare Board of India and the Kerala government were petitioners.
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