The canine that we have with or around us, is one happy animal that we have to have the responsibility to keep that way, because he does the same
Delhi High Court has come out with another landmark judgement. In a 86-page verdict, Justice JR Midha has observed, “Community dogs (stray/street dogs) have the right to food and citizens have the right to feed community dogs but in exercising this right, care and caution should be taken to ensure that it does not impinge upon the rights of others or cause any harm, hindrance, harassment and nuisance to other individuals or members of the society,” Justice JR Midha further said in his judgement that any person with “compassion for stray dogs can feed them at the private entrance/porch/driveway of their house or any other place not shared with other residents,” and that no person can restrict anyone from feeding dogs until and unless the same is causing harm or harassment to them.
Stating that community dogs had to be fed at areas designated by the AWBI (Animal Welfare Board of India) in consultation with the RWAs (Residents’ Welfare Associations) or MCDs (Municipal Corporations of Delhi), the judgement said that while doing so, the authorities had to be conscious of the fact that all community dogs were territorial beings and must be fed and tended to at places within their territory. Also, community dogs lived in packs and the AWBI and RWAs should ensure that “each ‘pack’ ideally had different designated areas for feeding even if that meant designating multiple areas in a locality,.”
The court also directed all law enforcement authorities to ensure that no harassment or hindrance is caused to people feeding street dogs at the designated spots. It also said that RWAs or Municipal Corporations have to ensure that every community dog in every area has access to food and water in the absence of caregivers or community dog feeders.
It is a comprehensive and outstanding judgement that covers a wide range of issues. It is impossible to summarise it here but some of the salient points, including those mentioned above, need reiteration. One of these is that dogs have to be sterilized and vaccinated and then returned to the same area. Vaccinated and sterilized dogs cannot be removed by the municipality, and “If any of the street dogs is injured or unwell, it shall be the duty of the RWA to secure treatment for such dog by the vets made available by the MCD or privately from the funds of the RWA.”
The court formed a committee, comprising the Director of Animal Husbandry Department or his nominee, senior officers of all municipal corporations, Delhi Cantonment Board and certain advocates, to implement the guidelines and asked it to hold its first meeting within four weeks. Stating that there was a need to spread the awareness of animals’ right to live with respect and dignity, the court asked the AWBI to carry out an awareness campaign in association with media. Noting that some residents sometimes subjected street dogs to abusive treatment, because of the misplaced belief that they carried the rabies virus, the judgement said it was the responsibility of community residents to get their dogs annually vaccinated against rabies.
The learned judge is absolutely right. There would have been a massive explosion of rabies cases in India if stray dogs carried the rabies virus in any significant measure. This has not happened. Since 2005, the Union Government’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) has been annually publishing a National Health Profile for the country. According to its 2018 edition, there were 97 cases of human deaths from rabies countrywide in 2017.
According to the relevant preceding annual National Health Profiles, there were 86 human deaths from rabies in 2016, 113 in 2015, 125 in 2014 and 132 in 2013. Nor were things much worse earlier, There, for example, were 386, 365 and 485 deaths from rabies in 1997, 1998 and 1999 respectively. The number was 486 in 2000 and 488 in 2001.
Further, in its Technical Report Series 931, the WHO’s Expert Consultation on Rabies (Geneva, October 5-8, 2004), observed, “Mass canine vaccination campaigns have been the most effective measure for controlling canine rabies.” The order in the judgement that stray dogs should be sterilized and vaccinated and returned to the same area and such dogs could not be removed by municipalities, will significantly bolster the animal birth control (ABC) programme, being implemented in India, and which provides precisely this. And which is in keeping with the WHO’s policy. The Technical Report Series 931, cited above, states, “Since the 1960s, ABC programmes, coupled with mass vaccination, have been advocated as a method to control urban street male and female dog populations and ultimately human rabies in Asia.”
Dogs are instinctively friendly towards humans, with whom their association goes back the stone age. Konrad Lorenz, pioneering and globally-famous scientist on animal behaviour, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1973, writes in Man Meets Dog, “The whole charm of the dog lies in the depth of friendship and the strength of the spiritual ties with which he has bound himself to man.”
The judgement goes a long way in promoting justice and fair-play to both humans and their best friends.
(The author is Consulting Editor, The Pioneer. The views expressed are personal.)
