Stray concerns

Earlier this month, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court advised a Noida resident who had complained of being harassed for feeding stray dogs to feed them in her home or open a shelter.

- KANIKA DATTA

Predictably, responses to these passing comments—which the frenzied social media world mistakenly interpreted as a judgment—revealed the deep fault lines over the issue of stray dogs. In India, you are either a dog lover or hater, with no scope for mutual comprehension. In fact, the barrage of uninformed comment from both sides of the divide following this "advice" from the apex court highlights like nothing else the gross institutional failure to sensibly deal with a problem that is gaining momentum as growing urbanization encroaches on spaces once inhabited by animals and birds.

It can be assumed that Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta are not fans of Indies, the popular term for street dogs. They appear to have had bad experiences during a morning walk or cycle ride. The inconvenient truth for them, however, is the Animal Birth Control (or ABC) Rules of 2023 under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, which incorporated guidelines from Supreme Court orders. Among its provisions are rules requiring resident welfare associations or local bodies to make provisions for feeding community animals and involve residents who feed animals.