Kerala High Court verdict leaves animal Lovers Jubilant

Member of Kerala state animal welfare board M.N. Jayachandran said that the HC verdict was clearly a positive one. He said that all local bodies should form monitoring committees within 2 weeks after receiving the verdict.

“As per rules, dogs belonging to three categories can be culled. Euthanasia is allowed only if the dog is mortally wounded or has an incurable disease. But the local body cannot cull dogs without the approval of the monitoring committee. The HC direction makes everything very clear and it’s high time the government put up a system for this. The dogs after sterilisation should be left at the spot from where they were caught,” said Mr Jayachandran. He alleged that chief whip Thomas Unniyadam owed a public apology for desensitising this issue.

“Politicians think that killing is the only solution to the problem and it’s evident from the court order that the government cannot make independent policy and only the Centre’s rules should prevail. The government should ensure basic infrastructure first. Dog pounds should be set up,” Mr Jayachandran added.

However, Thomas Unniyadan said that the verdict was very favourable for the state and the decisions taken by the government. He alleged that police authorities were acting against public interest by registering cases against culling of stray dogs. “The acts totally approve of culling of dogs and the police should drop all the cases registered so far. Local bodies should set aside funds for executing ABC programmes,” said Mr Unniyadan.