NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine whether municipal bodies can kill stray dogs merely on a complaint that they have become a “nuisance” to the public.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant said that it will look into the contradiction in animal welfare laws on what constitutes ‘nuisance’.
Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act says that if it receives a complaint that a dog has become a source of nuisance to the public, they can seize the offending animal and put it to sleep permanently.
But the animal birth control rules formulated under the central law – Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 – does not allow this. The 1960 law only permits the extermination of rabid, terminally-ill or mortally wounded dogs, and not nuisance-causing dogs.
Senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Animal Welfare Board, said that ‘nuisance’ is a subjective term and a dog cannot be killed just because someone says that it is creating a nuisance.
“When a dog barks, for some people it is a nuisance. There is another angle to this. Most dogs behave in such a way because they are troubled by people throwing stones at it or when it is subjected to some sort of pain. The municipality cannot just seize these dogs and put them to sleep permanently,” he said.
The court was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by an organization called People for Elimination of Stray Animals, seeking killing of stray dogs and by animal’s right activists for protecting stray animals.
TOI | Feb 3, 2015
Contact Lawyers In India : https://lawintellectindia.com/contact-us/