The Supreme Court on Friday did not grant an immediate stay of a Kerala High Court order in 2006 empowering local bodies with discretion to “seize and destroy” street dogs in the State.
A Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra, however, tagged a petition filed by the Animal Welfare Board of India, a statutory body, against the High Court order with an earlier petition by People for Elimination of Stray Animals concerning the killing of strays in Mumbai. The hearing has been scheduled for November 18.
In 2006, the Kerala High Court held that killing of street dogs “by such other methods as may be prescribed” would not be cruelty as defined under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
It declared that the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001 was ultra vires the 1960 Act as it allowed euthanasia for incurably ill or mortally wounded dogs.
The Board contended that “inhuman methods of catching and killing dogs have been widespread for many years in Kerala, with no perceptible reduction at all in dog population or man-dog conflict”.
The Board said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy held an all-party meet on July 9, this year, and said that “ferocious, dangerous or rabid” dogs can be killed on the strength of the 2006 High Court decision.
“Ferocious,” “dangerous” are words not defined in law. Vesting every municipal employee with the discretion to choose “ferocious or dangerous” dogs at will would necessarily result in intemperate and unbridled killing,” the Board argued.
The Board said the July 2015 stand by the State government was radically opposite to the November 2013 move by the State Agriculture Department, following a meeting between the Chief Minister and Health Minister, to constitute a committee to formulate a plan and strategy for conducting animal birth control programme in the State.
