AA Edit | Stray Dogs: Just Enforce the Laws

The Supreme Court, which has taken up the issue of the menace of stray dogs, is threatening to impose heavy compensation to be paid by states for every dog bite and death caused by strays while also holding the people who humanely feed strays accountable for canine attacks. This may be construed as an admission that the recommendations on dog management measures made by the same court have been unimplementable.

The problem has been one caused by decades of inaction in implementing the existing statutory rules on strays. It did not help that the top court passed stentorian orders like seeking the clearing of all institutions of strays, collecting all strays and creating pounds, etc.

The intention of the court in seeking ways to control this menace of strays not only biting people but also instilling fear in the young and the helpless on urban streets is beyond question, but the orders are still opaque on how to carry them out without budgetary support from state governments to local bodies.

While the Constitution specifies that every citizen must have compassion for all living creatures and treat them humanely, it becomes a challenge in urban environments when strays multiply because they are not subjected to the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules. Problems are also caused by monkeys that stray into populated areas and threaten humans with injury and households with theft.

A problem created by court directions that are not necessarily humane and scientific have led to the building of an atmosphere of distrust and reports of strays and monkeys being done to death are coming in from around the country. While a healthy debate may have been engendered in SC during the hearings on the subject, the basic issue of how best to implement the rules remains.

Executive inaction has been the basic problem for decades and fuzzy orders are not helping. Action on ABC Rules is clearly the best way forward and the scientific method is to sterilise female dogs, and not sterilisation of male dogs as the authorities are tending to focus on now.

The current laws have strong provisions, and it is a matter of finding the will on the part of local bodies to carry them out, including in the management of those dogs that display overtly aggressive behaviour and must be kept in pounds. If the courts cannot rule on finances for such operations, the state governments must come forward to fund animal control measures so the people can live in peace, and man and animal can coexist.