Daily Editorial:- Dog and Laws: on street dogs and the supreme court order

Dog and Laws: Between Compassion and Control

The Supreme Court’s recent order to remove all stray dogs from the streets of Delhi-NCR within eight weeks marks a dramatic shift in India’s approach to street animals. Citing an alarming rise in dog bites and rabies cases many involving children the Court has directed that strays be relocated to shelters, never to return to public spaces. In doing so, it has overturned not only the long-standing ABC (Animal Birth Control) Rules, which allowed for capture sterilize vaccinate release, but also its own earlier judgments upholding them.

The intention is clear: public safety must take precedence over sentiment. “Infants and young children should not fall prey to rabies,” the bench declared. Few can quarrel with that goal. Yet the question is not of intent but of means and here, the Court’s directive invites concern. The Delhi region has nearly a million stray dogs. Moving them to shelters in six to eight weeks would require infrastructure, trained staff, and funds that simply do not exist. The economic cost alone estimated at ₹15,000 crore makes the plan daunting.

Animal welfare groups warn that crowded shelters could become sites of neglect and disease. Ecologists caution that eliminating street dogs will create a “vacuum effect,” inviting more aggressive dogs from outside or allowing other pests rats, monkeys to flourish unchecked. Legally, too, the order’s clash with statutory rules raises questions of judicial overreach.

Supporters argue that the ABC model has failed in practice: sterilization rates remain low, dog bites have not declined, and the rights of vulnerable citizens especially children have been ignored in the name of animal compassion. Critics counter that the ABC framework, while imperfect, is the only humane, ecologically stable approach, and that the Court’s sweeping edict risks replacing one problem with several worse ones.

Between the two poles lies the real challenge: how to reconcile the safety of people with the dignity of animals. Stray dogs have long been part of India’s urban fabric, sometimes loved, often feared. Managing their population humanely requires resources, scientific planning, and community cooperation not merely a judicial deadline. In this debate, the law must walk on four legs: legality, practicality, humanity, and public health. Lose one, and the whole enterprise stumbles.