Supreme Court of India Rules In Favour Of Stray Dog Feeding

19th May 2022

In a turn of events sure to make dog lovers celebrate, the Supreme Court has now vacated an earlier stay on a High Court ruling on the feeding of stray dogs.

In March 2022, The Supreme Court stayed an order of the High Court order which had laid down guidelines regarding the feeding of animals.

The High Court ruling in July 2021 had stated that stray dogs had the right to food and the judge further added, “care and caution should be taken to ensure that it does not impinge upon the rights of others” and no harm should come to others.

The High Court had laid out guidelines for feeding stray dogs including designated feeding areas to be assigned by the Animal Welfare Board of India in consultation with municipal corporations or resident welfare associations.

The petitioners argued that the court did not differentiate between behaviours of stray animals and pet animals and that these guidelines may create aggressive territorial fights among the dogs.

The petitioner also argued that the High Court ruling ignored several “blatantly misleading, irrelevant and factually incorrect statements and misinformation with regard to dog behaviour, problems associated with stray dogs, general information regarding dogs and as also with respect to the existing laws”.

The NGO contended that the High Court’s order was contrary to the Supreme Court directions passed in 2009 where the Supreme Court had said that “High Courts not to pass any order relating to the 1960 Act (Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act) and the Animal Birth Control (Dog) Rules 2001”.

The petition filed by Humane Foundation for People and Animals challenging the Delhi High Court order declaring stray dog feeding as a right has now been dismissed by a 3 judge bench of the Supreme Court.

This is a victory for dog lovers in India who claimed that the guidelines set forth by the High Court were impractical.

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