MUMBAI: Around 400 activists gathered in Andheri Lokhandwala on Friday evening as part of a nationwide ‘Do or Die’ protest organised by the PAL Welfare Foundation, opposing recent Supreme Court directions on the management of street dogs, which they claimed were being misinterpreted and misused by authorities to justify “illegal” relocation, “harassment” of feeders and “violence” against stray dogs. PAL is an NGO founded by a Mumbai police inspector, Sudhir Kudalkar.
The protest began around 5 pm and took the form of a candle march lasting for about an hour. (Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times)
The Mumbai protest began around 5 pm and took the form of a candle march lasting for about an hour. Participants raised slogans and carried placards demanding strict implementation of what they said were “existing Supreme Court guidelines” and animal welfare laws rather than what they described as “selective and human-centric enforcement”.
The Supreme Court in the latest order in November, had ordered local authorities to remove stray dogs from high-density areas such as schools, hospitals, sports complexes, and transport hubs, vaccinate and sterilise them and relocate them to shelters instead of being released back into the same spot. The next hearing of the suo motu petition is on January 7.
Activists said that despite Supreme Court orders mandating sterilisation, vaccination and release of street dogs in the same locality, local authorities had failed to create feeding spots, carry out effective animal birth control programmes or ensure regular rabies vaccination. As a result, animal feeders and rescuers were routinely harassed, threatened and “illegally” stopped from feeding dogs, they claimed.
Roshan Pathak, PAL Animal Rights Advisor said that if sterilisation and vaccination programmes were implemented properly, “humans and animals would live peacefully”. “Instead, the government’s failure is being pushed onto voiceless animals and citizens who care,” he said.
Protesters further claimed that civic bodies were illegally relocating dogs, abandoning them on highways or removing them from schools and residential areas, which they claimed was in violation of Supreme Court orders and the Animal Birth Control Rules. They said there were no functional shelters or designated feeding zones, even though multiple representations had been made to municipal authorities.
Activists stated that they had already decided not to vote for any political party that did not support “humane animal welfare policies”. They said candidates would be closely observed, and if the situation continued, dog lovers would form their own political platform to field candidates focused solely on animal welfare and constitutional rights.
Protesters said they were opposing what they described as increasingly human-oriented interpretations of court orders that allow or encourage the relocation, removal or killing of street dogs. They called for a “just and balanced judicial order” that recognised street dogs as part of the urban ecosystem, safeguarded their right to life and prevented “arbitrary displacement”.
Actor and animal rights activist Anuj Sachdeva claimed that the dog bite figures being cited were not “credible” since, according to him, neither the BMC nor government hospitals verified whether the cases were actually dog bites. He said, “Multiple issues can be manufactured while serious problems in the country remain unaddressed. Diversion has become the system. In the end, voiceless animals suffer the most, and only humans with compassion can recognise that. The authorities are pushing dogs out to cover up their own failures.”