The Supreme Court on January 18 dismissed a plea seeking a complete extermination of stray dogs saying that they too had the right to live. “Nobody can destroy stray dogs in entirety. They also have a right to live”, the apex court affirmed.
The court further observed that though controlling the population of stray dogs was allowed, the people implementing the process should maintain a proper balance and a proper method for it. The order came in response to a plea who told the court that he wished to “totally destroy” stray dogs across the country.
The court has been hearing various other pleas relating to the stray dog menace in different parts of the country but especially in Mumbai and Kerala. While announcing the order stated that although it is a matter of a human concern but that the solution to this was not killing all the stray dogs. “It is true that a person can die because of a dog bite but it will be counted as an accident. We cannot say kill all the stray dogs because of this,” the court said.
The court also announced that they had received over 400 cases of dog bites and were working to come up with a doable solution for the problem. The court had even set up a panel who has been looking closely into the incidents.
When told that the children were not being able to attend school due to stray dog menace the court reiterated that if required they could be sent to shelter homes and even culled but could not be killed.
