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Dog lovers will appeal to apex court for leniency
Dog lovers are not giving up hope even after a recent high court judgement held that stray dogs that are a "nuisance" to the public could be killed since they fear that this term could be misused by the civic body.
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 23:58 January 6, 2009
Mumbai: Dog lovers are not giving up hope even after a recent high court judgement held that stray dogs that are a "nuisance" to the public could be killed since they fear that this term could be misused by the civic body.
"We have obtained a six-week stay on the court order in order to study the 156-page judgment to appeal before the Supreme Court by the end of January," Sudnya Patkar, Honorary Secretary, In Defence of Animals, India (IDA), told Gulf News. After hearing nearly 15 petitioners/intervenors for the past three years, a three-judge constitutional bench, on December 19 2008, decided the fate of all stray dogs not only in Mumbai but in the entire state of Maharashtra and Goa. "Since the municipal commissioner could be given the right and power to pick up 'nuisance' dogs and euthanise them, our cause of worry is that the word 'nuisance' can be interpreted differently by different persons and there can be a misuse of this power vested in the civic body chief," says Patkar.
She added that her organisation was consulting lawyers to challenge the order in the apex court. Animal organisations are anxious to get a clarity on what the court considered as a nuisance dog.
According to Welfare of Stray Dogs, an NGO, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for decades used to kill 50,000 stray dogs annually. The method used was electrocution. In 1994, in response to demands by the organisation and others, dog-killing was replaced by mass sterilisation and immunisation of stray dogs. Through this method, the dog population becomes stable, non-breeding, non-aggressive and rabies-free and it gradually decreases over a period of time, say dog lovers.
The good news in the recent court order, says Patkar, is that the division bench comprising Justices Radhakrishnan, Dilip Bhosale and Vijaya Kapse Tahilramani has upheld that the dog sterilisation programme should continue and that the rules framed by the central government should be followed. "This means that we have to continue our programs for spay/neuter of stray dogs."
The In Defence of Animals sterilises 650 dogs and cats every at the suburban Deonar Centre and about 350 dogs at the Vashi Centre.
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