Supreme Court Allows Euthanasia of Rabid, Aggressive Stray Dogs
The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday refused to recall an earlier order, that directed authorities to pick upstray dogs from public places and place them in shelters.
Moreover, the court granted authorities the permission to legally kill dogs which had turned rabid or "aggressive," citing the "menace of dog bites" in public places.
Concerned authorities may take legally permissible measures "including euthanasia in cases involving rabid, incurably ill, or demonstrably dangerous/aggressive dogs" to address the "threat posed to human life," the court said in its ruling.
The top court said this while dismissing a bunch of applications seeking modifications to the directions issued by the court in November of last year.
"This court cannot remain oblivious to the deeply disturbing ground realities emerging from various parts of the country where young children and elderly persons have been attacked, ordinary citizens have been left vulnerable in public places, and even international travelers have fallen to such incidents," it said, according to legal news outlet Live Law.
No complaints to be registered against dog catchers
The ruling also directed police authorities not to take down complaints against civic authorities for carrying out their duties as directed by the court.
Animal rights advocates fear that this direction would not allow investigations into disputed cases of animal cruelty.
The court's directive to keep dogs in designated shelters is not only an expensive enterprise, but also clashes with its directive to implement Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules.
The government-run program calls for a catch-neuter-vaccinate-return policy to control the population of stray dogs. However, the court's ruling does not allow for dogs to be returned to where they were picked up from after being vaccinated and sterilized.
The court blamed a poor implementation of the ABC Rules for India's stray dog problem.
"Prolonged inaction and absence of institutional commitment to effective implementation of ABC framework have contributed significantly to the persistence as well as aggravation of the problem, which has now assumed dimensions warranting urgent and systemic intervention," the court observed.
Despite the overlapping instructions, the top court directed authorities to implement the ABC rules in at least one center in one district, and asked the High Courts to monitor compliance.
In November 2025, the court directed authorities to remove stray dogs from public places such as schools, hospitals, bus stands, railway stations and sports complexes after taking cognisance of the rising cases of dog bites across India and its capital city. That order also banned the feeding of stray dogs except in designated feeding spots.
