Supreme Court to decide in September whether stray dogs can be exterminated

The Supreme Court on Tuesday posted to September for final hearing on whether stray dogs can be exterminated by authorities if they caused "nuisance" to people.

A bench of justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan told senior counsel Raj Panjwani appearing for Animal Welfare Board of India and others that it would hear the matter at length and pass appropriate orders.

The apex court had on January 23, 2009 stayed a Bombay High Court judgement which had allowed municipal authorities in Maharashtra to kill stray dogs causing "nuisance". The board in its appeal had maintained that unless the term "nuisance" was clearly defined the order of the high court cannot be implemented.

It was pointed out that two sets of legislations existed on treatment of stray dogs in Mumbai. The Animal Birth Control Rules (ABC rules) formulated under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 mandated killing of only rabid, incurably ill or mortally wounded dogs. On the other hand, the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act gave discretion to the civic commissioner to exterminate the animals.

Counsel for the board had argued that there are broad apex court guidelines for resorting to killing stray canines. It was contended that if a dog is rabid or mortally wounded or incurably ill it has to be taken and euthanised by the authorities by following the rules and guidelines. Further it was submitted that stay dogs biting people should be sterilised and not exterminated.

The high court had passed the impugned order on a petition filed by a Goa-based organisation People for Elimination of Stray Troubles which had sought killing of stray dogs to rid the society of their menace. 

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/supreme-court-to-decide-in-september-whether-stray-dogs-can-be-exterminated-198712

 

Street dogs killed on varsity campus

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Chennai/article2593801.ece

Five street dogs were clubbed to death by workers inside Vel's University in Pallavaram on Wednesday. A case has been registered at Pallavaram police station and three men have been named as accused in the First Information Report. According to Dawn Williams, General Manager of Blue Cross of India, their office received a call around 9 a.m. from students of the University that workers were clubbing street dogs to death inside the premises. Students, who requested anonymity, had told them that they fed the street dogs every day and were pained to see them being killed brutally.

Along with three other volunteers, Mr.Williams rushed to the university campus and found carcasses of five dogs near the main entrance and two dogs struggling for life. After information, a couple of personnel from Pallavaram police station also reached the university.

However, sensing trouble, the workers had already stopped catching the dogs. A complaint was subsequently lodged and a case registered under Section 11 (a) of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 in addition to Section 428 of Indian Penal Code (mischief by killing or maiming animals) – under which persons can be jailed up to two years. 

A spokesperson of the university said they deeply regretted the incident and that they had hired the workers only to chase away the dogs and that there was no instruction to kill them. The FIR has named three men – Manikandan, Nithin and Naveen of Tirusulam as the accused.

Mr.Williams said the carcasses would be taken to Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in Vepery, where a post-mortem would be performed. He recalled that street dogs were poisoned to death by Perumbakkam and Mowlivakkam Village Panchayats in April 2009 and October 2010 respectively. If any government or a private agency wanted to evict dogs, they had to contact Blue Cross of the TANUVAS that would send its master animal handlers, trap them without causing any harm to them and let them back after performing a birth control surgery on them.