New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reiterated that there can be no indiscriminate killing of stray dogs in Kerala and only in exceptional cases they can be killed by way of euthanasia or other means.
When one of the petitioners told the apex court that he wanted to “totally destroy” stray dogs across India, the bench said “nobody can destroy stray dogs in entirety. They also have a right to live”.
A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Ms R. Banumathi told counsel for animal activists “A person can’t be allowed to die due to dog bites. But for this we can’t say destroy all stray dogs.”
The Bench was responding to the concern expressed by animal rights activists that despite the top court’s injunction, stray dogs continued to be killed indiscriminately by vigilante squads in Kerala, with one of the alleged kingpin Jose Maveli even posing for interviews with various national newspapers and also BBC.
The activists placed in the court newspaper clippings of the interviews given by Maveli justifying the killings and boasting that he had so far killed 2,000 stray dogs over a year, despite the apex court passing a directive on November 17, last year, restraining vigilante groups in Kerala from killing or training children to kill stray dogs.
According to the counsel, Maveli not only had the temerity to kill over 2,000 dogs over the past few months but also dumped their carcasses openly in the police stations with cops doing nothing to implement the court’s order. Counsel wanted the court to take immediate action against Maveli, but Justice Dipak Misra said since the court had already summoned Maveli for his personal appearance on March 1, it would pass appropriate orders on that day.
However, these arguments were opposed by Sabu Stephen, a petitioner in the case, who said tough measures were needed to bring the down the rampant case of stray dog bites and alleged that animal rights activists and also the Animal Welfare Board of India, were actually conniving to promote the sale of anti-rabies vaccine for commercial gains. He submitted that during the past one decade the country has spent nearly '2.80 lakh crore on anti-rabbies vaccine.
The petitioner claimed that every year in Kerala about three lakh cases of stray dog bites are reported. His argument was supported by counsel V. Biju appearing for one Jose Sebastian, whose wife was mauled to death by stray dogs last year.
