SC to start final hearing on culling of stray dogs tomorrow

The Supreme Court is likely to commence final hearing tomorrow on a bunch of petitions challenging the mass culling of stray dogs.
A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra will hear a bunch of petitions including Animal Welfare Board of India's plea to decide the issue of primacy of laws framed by Centre and state governments in this regard.
Animal Welfare Board of India had sought that the central law, which mandates birth control of street dogs through strict implementation of the Animal Birth Control Dogs Rules, be followed.
In its plea, the board had said that these Rules cast an obligation on municipalities to ensure sterilisation and vaccination of stray dogs through the participation of animal welfare organisations, and then return them to the very location where they were picked up from.

Advocate Anjali Sharma, appearing for the board, said the Constitution made it a fundamental duty of all citizens of this country to treat every living creature with compassion.
Earlier, the apex court had refused to stay culling of stray dogs by the Thiruvananthapuram civic body on a PIL by advocate Anupam Tripathi and said the killing of the dangerous dogs and those inflicted with rabies should be guided by rules.

The Centre, in its affidavit, has said, "Involvement of
various agencies/departments at the central and state level, more particularly at the state level, was required in the proper and effective control and management of stray dogs as per ABC Rules implemented by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI).

"As the task had to be performed through the municipal authorities and other state government departments at the state level, the state governments should be advised to set up and strengthen institutional mechanisms and the AWBI should be part of such mechanism.
"State governments have already been advised by the central government to set up state-level Animal Welfare Boards which should be the nodal mechanism to perform this task."
It also said that the Health Ministry may be asked to identify a scheme/source of funding for the control and management of stray dogs through relevant agency at the state level.

The bench has fixed the matter for further hearing on March 1.
The apex court had earlier asked the Kerala government to file its response along with the details of action taken against the offenders.
The bench had also granted time to the Centre to file its response on the module dealing with aspects of 'implementation framework for street dog population management, rabies eradication and reducing man-dog conflict' filed by AWBI.
The bench was hearing a batch of petitions filed by various NGOs and individual petitioners in the matter.
An apex court-appointed panel headed by former Kerala High Court judge S S Jagan, in its interim report, had said that more than one lakh people in Kerala have been bitten by dogs in 2015-16 and warned that frequent stray dog attacks on children there have created a dangerous situation.

Some NGOs and individual petitioners have moved the apex court against the decisions of some high courts, including the Bombay High Court and the Kerala High Court, to allow municipal authorities to deal with the stray dogs menace as per the rules.