Human life is more valuable than dogs: HC

Stray dog menace increasing, court observes while quashing some cases

Expressing concern over the lack of measures to tackle the stray dog menace, the Kerala High Court has observed that the life of a human being is more valuable than the life of a stray dog.

Justice K. Abraham Mathew, while quashing the cases registered against Kochouseph Chittilappilly, chairman of the Stray Dog Free Dog Movement, Jose Maveli and others, observed that the menace of stray dogs was on the increase in the State.

Victims

Several people had been victims of stray dog menace and there had been no effective measures to curb it.

Even infants were attacked and killed at their homes, the judge said, while passing orders on the petition by Mr. Chittilappilly and others seeking to quash the cases against them.

“Faced with these situations, people took certain measures that they believed was necessary to protect innocent persons. Certainly, the life of a human being was more valuable than the life of a stray dog. I do not think that the petitioners wanted to subject the dogs to cruelty. Their intention was only to protect human beings,” the court added.

The petitioners had been charged with the offences under under Sections 428 and 429 (mischief by killing or maiming animal) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

The allegation against them as mentioned in the cases was that they caught four stray dogs using a trap and took them in a vehicle to another place where they were tied to a tree.