Animal welfare groups across India are protesting the Supreme Court’s recent order to remove all stray dogs from Delhi within eight weeks.
The ruling requires authorities to catch, sterilise, vaccinate, and keep dogs permanently in new shelters.
Delhi’s stray dog population is estimated at one million. On Monday, the court banned the current “catch, sterilise, release” system, calling it not effective.
Justice Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala said he made the decision to reduce dog bites and rabies cases in the country. He said children and elderly people must be able to move freely without fear of attack.
On Monday night, protesters in Delhi marched with candles and signs. “Communities think of neighbourhood dogs as family. And the displacement and jailing of dogs is not scientific and has never worked,” animal welfare organization PETA India said in a statement.
Removing them, PETA warned, will cause chaos, suffering, and fights over territory, while failing to reduce bites or rabies.
PETA called for mass sterilisation, rabies vaccination, closing illegal breeders, and transparent use of Animal Birth Control funds, all part of the current law.
Former MP Maneka Sanjay Gandhi echoed this view, calling the order costly, not practical, and based on misinformation. She accused Delhi’s authorities of corruption in sterilisation programmes.
